Why Daniel Radcliffe Doesn’t Want Harry Potter Fans to Ask New TV Cast Questions About Him, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson

Daniel Radcliffe has a request for Harry Potter fans.

As the new HBO series is in production with a whole new slate of young actors playing the beloved Hogwarts students, there's one thing Radcliffe, 36, asks of fans.

He told ScreenRant that the "thing that I really don't want" to happen for Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton, who will play Harry, Ron and Hermione, respectively, is for them to be constantly bombarded with questions about him and his costars, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson.

"When these kids got cast, I think there was a whole thing around the internet, around the world, people being like, ‘We’ve got to look after these kids.’  And I was like, if you mean that, if everyone really means that, all the people that are saying that, one of the things you can do for me is not ask about us — me, Emma, Rupert — all the time," Radcliffe said.

"I would like not to be, like, weird spectral phantoms in these children's lives and just to let them get on with it," he explained.

The HBO series, which will adapt each of J.K. Rowling's seven books into their own respective season, is "going to be a new thing and it's going to be a different thing," Radcliffe added.

Radcliffe also told the outlet that he thinks the new actor who will play the titular character "is gonna be better than me."

"I learned as I went. I look back on what I did now with a lot more kindness, and I find it less embarrassing now that I’m older, but you know, I was very much learning how to do it for a long time on Potter," he said of his own experience leading the film series from age 11.

The Tony winner told PEOPLE that he's been in touch with Grint, 37, and Watson, 35, about the new TV show, and they have all been reflecting on "how surreal [it is] to watch people starting off on that journey, all those years later."

He said they haven't had "a ton of communication about the show specifically," but they're all on the same page about the range of emotions they're feeling.

"It's one of those where I think we all just know how the others feel, because we're also feeling it," Radcliffe said. "You just see the pictures of these kids, and you just want to grab them and hug them. That's the impulse that I think that we, mainly, all have."

Seeing the young castmembers has also helped Radcliffe see his own experience in a new light. "When you're 11, and you're doing something, you're like, 'Of course I'm old enough to do this — I'm the oldest I've ever been.' But now when I meet 11-year-olds, I am like, 'Whoa, that seems nuts.' It puts into perspective," he said.

He also shared how his perspective on his parents — and how they guided him through the Harry Potter experience — has been evolving as he's seen the new series being cast.

"Honestly, it makes me admire – and I do tell them this, but my parents — more than I was capable of doing at the time," he said. "Just going like, 'Wow, you got me through something crazy, and you did it with a huge amount of humor,' yeah, it's a big task."

HBO's Harry Potter series is slated to premiere in 2027.