Daniel Radcliffe to TV Guide: Split Potter Finale a "Positive Thing"

• Mar 13, 2008 06:35 PM ET
• by TV Guide News

Daniel Radcliffe says he "had an inkling" that one of cinema's biggest franchises would cleave its finale into two films, but still cheers the official decision to turn Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows into a two-part series-ender. "It's a really positive thing," the actor told TV Guide during a call to promote Masterpiece Classic: My Boy Jack (airing April 20 on PBS). "And I think the fans will appreciate that more than had we tried to make it into one film. We'd have to cram so much in there and actually have to skip over some things. And in this seventh book, there are a lot of things you can't afford to skip over."

That's not to say that director David Yates and the writers don't have some work cut out for them. "The challenge now is for them to find out where the breaking point is between the two films," says Radcliffe, "because I don't think there is an obvious place [to do so]."

The timetable for the big finale? "When I finish the sixth film [ Half-Blood Prince], which I'm shooting now, I'll take some time off - I'm doing Equus on Broadway - and a while after that I'll get on the Hallows films, which we'll film as one. That will begin early-ish next year." - Matt Mitovich, with reporting by Ileane Rudolph

What's your take? Is a more complete Hallows a fair trade-off for having to wait a bit longer for big-screen closure?