Daniel Radcliffe said he got an advance warning before a recent Saturday Night Live sketch turned the wizarding world into a steamy sports-romance riff. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he said Finn Wolfhard texted him the day before the episode aired to flag that the show was doing a Harry Potter sketch. Radcliffe said he later watched the bit and found it “very funny and sweet,” adding that he enjoys seeing “other versions” of the character because “it makes me laugh.”
The pre-taped parody, titled “Heated Wizardry,” played like a fake trailer that spliced Hogwarts iconography with the melodramatic style of Heated Rivalry. Ben Marshall appears opposite Wolfhard, with the sketch framing Harry and Ron Weasley as Quidditch stars locked in a secret, lusty entanglement that mirrors the “arch-rivals” romance at the center of the TV drama. Radcliffe said he hasn’t watched the series yet, and that he suspected he missed some references, while still responding to the tone and the joke construction.
The moment also underlines how Harry Potter continues to function as a shared pop-culture language for late-night comedy, long after the film run ended. Saturday Night Live has spoofed the franchise repeatedly, from early-2000s sketches featuring Rachel Dratch and Lindsay Lohan to Radcliffe’s own 2012 return in a segment that imagined an older Harry who never really left Hogwarts.
Radcliffe, who has leaned into stage work and offbeat screen roles in the years since, said he’s now comfortable with the Potter association and doesn’t need people to “forget” it for him to enjoy what he does next. He’s set to appear in the upcoming NBC comedy The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins opposite Tracy Morgan.
