File this under collaborations we didn’t see coming — Daniel Radcliffe and David Beckham are teaming up on a new Harry Potter project. The stars will each take a turn reading a chapter from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first installment in J.K. Rowling’s magical series. Bonus? They’ll be in good company. Radcliffe and Beckham are leading a roundup of celebrities taking part in free audio and video recordings of the beloved book.
On Tuesday, Rowling’s Wizarding World media company announced the exciting endeavor, which will stream exclusively on Spotify (for both free and premium users) and Spotify Kids. Videos will also be added weekly on Rowling’s quarantine-inspired portal, Harry Potter at Home. The chapter-by-chapter readings kicked off with invariably the most fitting narrator: Radcliffe. His contribution, available for your enjoyment now, is the first chapter in the series, “The Boy Who Lived.” After all, who better to lend their voice to the inaugural recording than the actor who brought Harry Potter himself to life in all eight films?
As made evident by a teaser clip Rowling’s company released, six celebrity readers outside of Radcliffe have already signed on to read chapters: Beckham, Dakota Fanning, Stephen Fry, Claudia Kim, Eddie Redmayne and Noma Dumezweni. More stars will be announced in the coming weeks, with all 17 chapters of the celebrity-narrated book expected to be released between now and mid-summer. Along the way, fans are encouraged to “keep an eye out for some very special surprise cameos.” Accio, quarantine entertainment!
Surprise! We've got a treat for you…From today, amazing friends of the Wizarding World are going to take turns reading Harry Potter book one.
And to start us off with Chapter 1, we think you’ll agree we have the perfect narrator…⚡️ #HarryPotterAtHome
https://t.co/w9K77akboupic.twitter.com/Q03PmjeD5d— Wizarding World (@wizardingworld) May 5, 2020
Of course, fans will undoubtedly recognize that several of these stars have pre-existing connections to the wildly popular Harry Potter series. Fry has narrated all of the Harry Potter audiobooks. Redmayne stars in the Fantastic Beasts spinoffs. And Dumezweni played the grown-up version of Hermione Granger in Broadway’s original run of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. As for Beckham, his obsession with all things Harry Potter is well-documented.
The weekly readings mark the next phase of Harry Potter at Home, the initiative Rowling announced last month in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. A dedicated hub of Harry Potter-themed information and activities, the portal aims to “cast a banishing charm on boredom.”
Before you go, discover some of the stars who were almost cast in Harry Potter.
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