Harry Potter turns 25: Where the original cast is now — and remembering those we lost along the way

After all this time?

Always.

Twenty-five years ago this fall, a scrawny child with a lightning-bolt scar stepped off a train at Platform 9¾ and changed the movie business forever. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone opened in November 2001 and, over the next decade, built one of the most stacked ensembles ever assembled, an unlikely mix of unknown child actors and the finest of British stage stars. To mark the quarter-century milestone, Warner Bros. is running its Back to Hogwarts celebration this year, complete with a theatrical re-release of the first film and glimpses of the upcoming HBO reboot. It's the perfect excuse to ask: what happened to everyone?

The golden trio

Daniel Radcliffe, now 37, has spent the years since Hogwarts proving he never wanted to be typecast as The Boy Who Lived.

He's played everything from a flatulent corpse in Swiss Army Man to Weird Al Yankovic, and he's become something of a Broadway fixture, winning a Tony for Merrily We Roll Along and returning to the stage this year in the solo show Every Brilliant Thing. He has also made peace with sitting out the new HBO series, telling reporters recently that a clean break from the original cast is probably the smarter move for the reboot. Off-screen, he's been with actress Erin Darke since 2012 and the two have a young son.

Emma Watson, 36, has taken the opposite path, deliberately stepping back from the spotlight. After Little Women in 2019, she largely disappeared from red carpets to pursue a doctorate at Oxford, where she's now a few years into her studies. She still shows up occasionally, Paris Fashion Week, a rare Cannes appearance in 2025, and remains a prominent UN Women advocate through the HeForShe campaign she launched.

Rupert Grint, 38, has built one of the more interesting post-Potter careers of the three, gravitating toward horror and prestige television. His psychological horror film Nightborn made the festival rounds this year, and he's about to share the screen with Johnny Depp in Ebenezer, a reimagining of A Christmas Carol due out in November. He and longtime partner Georgia Groome have two children together.

Hogwarts' next generation

The friends who filled out Harry, Ron, and Hermione's inner circle have aged into steady, varied careers of their own. Tom Felton, who played Draco Malfoy, has bounced between blockbusters and indies since the franchise ended and even returned to the wizarding world on stage, playing Lucius Malfoy in a production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) has kept a lower profile with television work, including a stint on All Creatures Great and Small. Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) competed on Dancing with the Stars, remains an outspoken animal-rights and eating-disorder-recovery advocate, and got married this year.

Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley) has moved into directing and still makes the rounds of fan conventions, including recent appearances promoting anniversary events. The three still cross paths regularly, Watson, Felton, Lynch, Wright, and Lewis have been photographed together at reunions for years, and Felton and Watson in particular have remained close friends since filming.

Behind the scenes on the Weasley family front, James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George) have stayed close to the fandom, doing conventions and podcasting about the franchise, while Mark Williams (Arthur Weasley) continues steady character work in British television. Emma Thompson, who played Professor Trelawney is brilliant and iridescent as always.

Still commanding the screen

Hogwarts' faculty was stacked with acting stars, and most of them never slowed down. Ralph Fiennes, who brought Voldemort to life, remains one of Britain's most respected actors, staying busy across film, television, and the stage.

Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) has enjoyed a late-career surge thanks to a memorable turn on "The White Lotus." Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) continues films, following the same career bump Isaacs got. Gary Oldman (Sirius Black) has kept working steadily since Potter, including his Oscar-winning turn as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) has remained a fixture of British television and theater, including a widely praised run playing Queen Elizabeth II.

Remembering those we've lost

Part of any 25th-anniversary retrospective has to reckon with loss, the Potter ensemble has said goodbye to several towering figures. Alan Rickman, whose Severus Snape became one of the series' most beloved and complicated characters, died of pancreatic cancer in January 2016 at 69.

Richard Harris, the original Dumbledore, died in 2002, shortly after the first film's release; Michael Gambon, who took over the role for the remaining six films, died in 2023 following a bout of pneumonia.

Robbie Coltrane, forever Hagrid to a generation of fans, died in 2022 at 72. And Dame Maggie Smith, the formidable Professor McGonagall, died in September 2024 at 89, closing out a storied career that spanned both stage and screen. And Richard Griffiths, who played Harry's blustering Muggle uncle Vernon Dursley, died in 2013 at 65 following complications from heart surgery, his final film, 'About Time,' was released just months later. Their absence has been felt keenly at every reunion since.

The 25th anniversary arrives at an odd moment for the franchise: HBO's straight adaptation of the book series is now in production, with an entirely new young cast stepping into the Hogwarts uniforms.