A new Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley want to tell you a
story
[October 23, 2025]
By HILARY FOX
LONDON (AP) — If you listen carefully, you can hear the noise of
chocolate frogs flying through the air on the Hogwarts Express.
Hermione Granger gasps with delight as Ron Weasley catches the sweet
treat thrown his way by Harry Potter, as all three travel home after an
eventful first year at the wizarding school.
This isn’t the now-vintage, Daniel Radcliffe-era movies, it’s not the
“Cursed Child” play and neither is it the forthcoming HBO TV series.
What you're hearing is a brand-new cast in a new Audible recording of
J.K. Rowling’s seven books.
The legacy of Harry Potter might have been clouded by headlines
surrounding Rowling’s comments on gender and opposition to trans rights,
but it hasn’t stopped production on new projects set in the wizarding
universe. The Associated Press visited the London recording studio for a
“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” session in the summer, as young
actors Frankie Treadaway, Max Lester and Arabella Stanton lay down walla
— background noise that's used to bring the stories to life. The young
trio voice Harry, Ron and Hermione in the first three audiobook
adaptations, before an older cast takes over.
Instead of listening to someone like Jim Dale or Stephen Fry telling the
whole story alone, this new audio production — the first book releases
Nov. 4 — has a full, high-wattage cast. While Cush Jumbo narrates, Hugh
Laurie is Albus Dumbledore, Riz Ahmed portrays Professor Snape and
Michelle Gomez brings Professor McGonagall's Scottish lilt to life.
Matthew Macfadyen voices Voldemort, and Keira Knightley appears later in
the series as Dolores Umbridge.
But it's Stanton who is pulling double duty in the Potterverse: The
11-year-old is also starring as the studious and brave Hermione Granger
in the HBO show.
“I can’t say much, because they’ve cast a Mimblewimble tongue-tying
spell on me,” Stanton apologizes. “But I’ve just started filming, and
it’s great at the moment.”
AP sat down with Treadaway, 14, Lester, 13, and Stanton to find out the
snacks required to keep them going, their introductions to the wizarding
world and how they feel about acting. The conversation has been edited
for clarity and brevity.
AP: What were the auditions like?
TREADAWAY (Harry): You really got like, a taste of what it was going to
be like, also in the studio and even the scenes.
AP: Had you done anything like this before?
LESTER (Ron): I did some audio before, yeah, but I mean nothing as
professional as this is.
AP: How does this compare to your stage work?
STANTON (Hermione): It’s just very, very different, but I suppose the
similar thing is that, because you want to make your voice come alive, I
think you ... sort of act as you’re saying the lines to give the words
some color.
AP: How’s the recording going so far?
LESTER: Lovely people, great food and great experience.
AP: What’s your favorite food when you’re working?
TREADAWAY: The snack cupboard and the chocolate fridge.
LESTER: The chocolate fridge is dedicated to chocolate.
STANTON: It’s filled with snacks.
TREADAWAY: They have to restock every time I go.
AP: Can you remember the first time you ever heard about Harry Potter?
TREADAWAY: I think it might have been when my sister was watching the
movies chronologically and then for some reason I only decided to tag
along for the last one.
AP: Did you go back to the beginning?
TREADAWAY: I don’t think I did, because I was like, “Oh, I can’t watch
this, this is a 12 (rating),” so I had to wait till I was 12 to watch
them.
STANTON: My friends had started all reading all the books and everything
and they were like, “Oh have you heard Harry Potter this, Harry Potter
that?” And so I was like, right I’m going to start reading the books. So
I think when I was 8 I started reading the first one. Sort of just
worked my way through them and yeah it was great, I’ve loved Harry
Potter. I love it.
LESTER: I saw this book in Waterstones and everyone said that it was
quite popular. It was like one of the bestsellers. So my mum bought it
for me and I read the book and it was just great.
AP: So what do your friends and family think about you voicing these
characters? Have you been able to tell them?
LESTER: I haven’t really told many of them, not really.
TREADAWAY: I think those who know will never truly know actually what
it’s about until they listen to it.
STANTON: I think I’ve told quite close family, sort of keeping it in a
bubble. But they’ll never really understand because so much effort — I
mean, the teams, all the amazing people behind it, they put in so much
effort to make the audio series incredible.
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This combination of photos shows, from left, Arabella Stanton,
Frankie Treadaway and Max Lester who voice the lead characters,
Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, and Ron Weasley, respectively, for
the Audible "Harry Potter" series. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)
 AP: Have you got a favorite part of
the stories?
TREADAWAY: I can’t wait to hear how the battle scenes work because
of all the SFX and all the sounds and all of the grunts and oohs and
ahs and all that because I think that will sound really cinematic.
... It was very weird because I would stand there for a minute just
grunting and I would feel so stupid.
STANTON: I can’t wait to hear all the spells because I think
Hermione generally just says so many spells and I can't wait to hear
the sounds of people casting them, I just love spells.
LESTER: My favorite part that I’m looking forward to is just
literally just to hear it all come together and for everyone to talk
to each other because I feel like that’s going to be amazing.
AP: Are you like your characters in any way?
TREADAWAY: That’s how I found it quite easy to just step into the
character because I think I relate to them and I’m sure you guys do
as well. ... I’m not like the biggest ego ever. ... Sometimes you’re
the smaller person in the room and you just sometimes just mingle. I
feel like I relate to Harry in that way.
AP: How about you and Hermione?
STANTON: I love books. I love writing, I love reading, I love doing
all that kind of stuff. I mean, I like school, but I don’t love
school. And I think ... books is the main connection between
Hermione and I.
AP: How are you like Ron?
LESTER: I think we both relate to each other because we’re quite
cheeky and we love food. We love food! ... In moments, we’re both
serious and we’re also not afraid to stand up for the people that we
love or stand up for our friends because we always do the thing
that’s right, and that’s kind of what I relate to, because I go into
the deeper side of Ron, and not just the eating food and being
cheeky.
AP: What’s your favorite kind of magical element?
LESTER: My favorite kind of magical element is the spells. I think
they’re just really cool. Like “stupefy” (the stunning spell) — I
think that’s very, very cool.
STANTON: One of the main props that Hermione uses is the Time
Turner. I love all the magical objects like the Invisibility Cloak,
the Time Turner, all those things because ... (they're) things you
wouldn’t be able to use in real life, but in the magic world, it
transports you into a completely different world.
TREADAWAY: The Polyjuice Potion, because when you record that, it’s
like, you have to really hone in on the actual sound of turning into
someone else, and that was one of my favorite magic parts of it.
AP: Are you aware of how much love there is for Harry Potter?
TREADAWAY: I guess that’s sort of why you have a bit of pride in
yourself knowing that such a big name and characters, you get to
associate yourself with them. If you know what I mean, it gives you
a little feeling inside your heart.
AP: What does it mean for you to be representing Ron?
LESTER: It makes me proud, honestly, to be representing such a great
and funny character, but then also, I don’t know, it just makes me
... feel a part of this community.
AP: And how about you, representing Hermione?
STANTON: I’ve dreamt of that since a really young age, and I’ve
always looked up to all of the people who played Hermione, like Emma
Watson and all those people.
AP: Are you aware how huge it is around the world?
TREADAWAY: I don’t think we’ll really feel that until it comes out,
I guess, because that just makes it more unreal.
LESTER: It’s so popular around the world, which makes it more unreal
that so many people are going to be interested in this and we don’t
even realize it, yeah, we can’t even process this.
AP: So is acting the way forward for you now? Would you like to
continue doing this?
TREADAWAY: Yeah, definitely — I mean on this, it never really felt
like pushing yourself to do something, it wasn’t work, it felt like
an enjoyable experience and you’ve got something to see at the end
of it.
STANTON: I’d love to act, yeah, definitely. And I think, like
Frankie said, I mean, just being part of the audio series is
incredible. And yeah, can’t wait to do more.
LESTER: I think it is for me because I always say it’s not work if
you do something that you love and, honestly, I love acting so much.
It makes me feel happy and it makes me feel like my true self and
... I think it is the way forward just to keep going and do a lot of
jobs, hopefully.
AP: And you’re all bonded now aren’t you?
ALL: Yeah.
LESTER: The proper trio.
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