Potter stars look to the future as film series ends

Deathly Hallows premiers today, leaving it stars eyeing an uncertain future.

LONDON: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who have played boy wizard Harry and his friends Hermione and Ron for the past decade, admit that making two parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows has been an emotional journey.

The first part premieres today and the second is set to release next July, bringing down the curtain on the film versions of JK Rowling’s hit children’s books which have propelled the three child stars to global fame and fortune.

Plucked from obscurity while still at primary school, Radcliffe, Watson and Grint spent their formative years on set. Their characters became second skin and the actors admit it is a tough job to leave them behind.

“It’s been a massive part of my life, I’m going to miss kind of everything,” Grint, 22, told journalists ahead of the premiere.

Radcliffe, 21, seems firmly set on acting with hopes of taking up directing at a later stage, while Watson is studying a liberal arts degree at Brown University in the United States and has already forged a path for herself as a fashion model.

But they both admit that the future is uncertain, with Watson, 20, saying, “I’m entering a new phase of my life, I feel excited to see what comes next.”

Over the past six films, fans have watched Harry and his friends learn magic at Hogwarts school and battle the growing forces of the evil Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry’s parents and is intent on destroying him too.

It is the first of two films based on the seventh and final book in Rowlings’ series, which have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide which is premiering. Director David Yates says the decision to split the book was creative and not driven by film studio Warner Bros’ desire to make money, having already taken $5.4 billion at the box office.

While the first part of the book charts the three friends’ emotional journey, the second half involves a huge battle between good and evil.

Yates said that despite the failure to release a 3D version of Part One in time, he hopes this problem will be resolved for the second part.

“I’d love the last one to be in 3D — the second one is a big spectacle, it’s operatic, it’s battles, it’s spiders, it’s giants, it’s dragons. I think it could work,” he said.

Rowling has made a fortune out of the books which she wrote as a penniless single mother in the 1990s, and has described finishing the Potter series as “like a bereavement” - although she had not ruled out taking up her pen again.

However, Watson and Radcliffe show little interest in taking up their roles once again - although the latter said he might be tempted if ever asked to take on the role of the headmaster of Hogwarts.

“Ten years is enough with one character, but if they offer me Dumbledore’s part, I’d think about it,” Radcliffe quipped.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2010.