Daniel Radcliffe has faced questions from Harry Potter fans about which films in the series he likes most, more than ten years after the last installment hit cinemas.
Being asked to choose a favorite Harry Potter movie is a bit like expecting Vin Diesel to crown one of the Fast & Furious entries as the best (personally I’l never get over the last scene in Furious 7 with Paul Walker).
Even though ranking the franchise can feel like an impossible task, Radcliffe has now put his choices on record after being pressed by Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Before he started weighing the films against each other, though, Radcliffe admitted he hasn’t revisited the movies in a long time.
“When I was 18, I would cringe watching the earlier film,” Radcliffe, now 36, said. “Now, I think the early films are sweet and now I cringe watching myself when I was 18 or 19.”
He continued: “But I assume that those dates will just keep changing as to what I find palatable of my own work.”
Radcliffe also noted that he hasn’t actually watched the films for ages.
Still, Horowitz pushed ahead with a ranking format, asking him to choose between pairs of movies in release order.
The first matchup was 2001’s Sorcerer’s Stone versus 2002’s Chamber of Secrets. On that choice, Radcliffe said: “I would take Chamber of Secrets out of those two because I love the Basilisk.”
Fans will remember the Basilisk as the enormous serpent hidden in the Chamber of Secrets, a creature tied to Salazar Slytherin and Hogwarts’ dark lore.
According to the story, the snake remained concealed within the school for roughly a thousand years.
Next, he was asked to pick between Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire, and Radcliffe went with the fourth film.
He said: “I know everyone wants me to say Azkaban. I know that’s how everyone else feels, but I love the stuff I got to do on the fourth movie; it was awesome. So I’ll say Goblet of Fire.“
When it came to The Order of the Phoenix versus Half Blood Prince, Radcliffe suggested the latter sat near the bottom of his personal list.
“That’s my own stuff, not the film,” Radcliffe added of the 2007 movie.
And when he was asked to choose between the two The Healthy Hallows films, Radcliffe revealed the final installment is his overall favorite.