Nick Frost said some people won’t like his Hagrid in the new Harry Potter TV series, and he is fine with that. He is stepping into a role defined by Robbie Coltrane, while also trying to make room for his own version of Rubeus Hagrid.
“I’ve tried to take what Robbie did and honour that … but also I’ve got eight hours here each series, while Robbie had two and a half – there has to be a bit more to him,” Frost said in an interview with The Times. He added: “Some people won’t like it. They’ll go, ‘Not my Hagrid.’ And that is all right.”
Eight hours for Hagrid
Eight hours each series gives Frost far more screen time than Coltrane had, and he has already started defining the character inside that longer format. Frost said, “So: he’s from Bristol. He’s nice, a bit quiet.”
That choice points to a narrower, more deliberate read on the role: less about broad imitation, more about building Hagrid across a longer run. In television terms, that means audiences will spend more time with the character before deciding whether this version fits Harry Potter.
Emy and The Green Mile
The 1950s shaped one part of Frost’s approach through Emy, his uncle, who never grew up after being diagnosed with scarlet fever as a child. Frost also drew on Michael Clarke Duncan’s huge, violent but childlike character in The Green Mile, using that performance as another guide for how power and innocence can sit together on screen.
Last year, Frost said he understood the blowback to his Harry Potter involvement but did not agree with JK Rowling’s views, adding: “She’s allowed her opinion and I’m allowed mine – they just don’t align in any way, shape or form.” He also said, “We shouldn’t just hope it will go away, because it makes it easier,” and, “Maybe we should educate ourselves.”
JK Rowling backlash
That leaves the series with a familiar problem: Frost is not just replacing Robbie Coltrane, he is doing it inside a project already carrying controversy around JK Rowling. John Lithgow has called the backlash to his casting odd, and Paapa Essiedu was among hundreds of TV and film professionals who signed a letter calling for industry action on trans rights.
For Frost, the business of the role now comes down to whether viewers accept a Hagrid built over eight hours rather than one built in the memory of the films. The shape of that reaction will become clear when the Harry Potter TV series launches on HBO on Christmas Day.
