In March 2025, HBO announced that Nick Frost — an actor best known for his roles in movies like “Hot Fuzz” and “Shaun of the Dead” — will be playing Rubeus Hagrid in the upcoming TV series adaptation of the “Harry Potter” books. The announcement garnered mostly positive responses from fans, as he certainly looks the part and has more than enough acting chops to pull it off. 

In an interview with Collider, Frost gave his thoughts on the role. Particularly, he offered some insight into how he’ll handle a character that was already portrayed perfectly by the late Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in all eight “Harry Potter” movies.

“While I’m really aware of what went before me in terms of Robbie’s amazing performance, I’m never going to try and be Robbie,” Frost explained. “I’m going to try and do something, not ‘different,’ I think you have to be respectful to the subject matter, but within that, there’s scope for minutia.” He later added, “[Hagrid’s] funny! I want it to be funny and cheeky and scared and protective and childlike. That’s what I’m planning on doing.”

It’s a quote that demonstrates a strong awareness of just how much of a tightrope this reboot will be for the cast and crew; they’ll have to put their own special spin on a story that was already adapted wonderfully in the 2000s, but they can’t change things too much because book fans want a faithful adaptation. It’s especially tough because the adult actors especially were amazing in those movies. Fans will poke fun at the occasionally stiff acting from the child actors involved, but few will deny that the adult actors nailed it. Maggie Smith’s Professor McGonagall, Alan Rickman’s Severus Snape, and Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid felt exactly how readers always imagined them.

Despite the challenge ahead, Nick Frost seems thrilled to be a part of the franchise. “I think the beauty of being able to do a book a season means I get to explore that a lot more, and I can’t wait,” he explained. The TV format means that some of Hagrid’s best moments from the books can finally be explored on screen. For instance, there’s a storyline in “Goblet of Fire” where the school finds out that Hagrid is half-giant; Hagrid’s depressed and scared to return to teaching, so the kids go to his hut and try to cheer him up. It’s a very sweet moment that the movies didn’t have time for, but a TV show would. (Assuming, of course, the “Harry Potter” series makes it to that point.)

Frost added, “I’m just so excited to get going. I’ve gone in to do head sculpts and have your hand stand and stuff, and they say, ‘Oh, have a look at this.’ And you’re like, ‘Wow. That’s the coolest thing. … I love films. I’ve loved cinema my whole life, so to be part of that universe now and that they’re showing me, like, a dancing mushroom, it’s like, ‘That is so cool!'”

In addition to Frost as Hagrid, HBO has already announced the actors for most of the other major characters in the series. Some of the most noteworthy casting choices so far include John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as Snape, and Janet McTeer as Professor McGonagall. Not all of these are set in stone, but they are at least a promising sign for a project that otherwise has a ton of baggage attached to it. No one knows for sure how this new adaptation of the “Harry Potter” series will pan out, but at least we know the role of Hagrid in good hands.

The “Harry Potter” TV show will stream on HBO Max at a yet-to-be-specified date in the future.