Here's why Daniel Radcliffe hasn't seen Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

This has genuinely shocked us.

Daniel Radcliffe just made an unexpected announcement about Harry Potter and it has shocked us to the core.

In some of the most surprising Daniel Radcliffe news that we’ve ever heard, the 27-year-old actor admitted this week that he hasn’t actually seen Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Yes, really.

The stage-play (which is the fastest-selling play of all time, FYI) is set 19 years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, receiving five star reviews across the board.

Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have both seen the sell-out play, going backstage to meet their on-stage counterparts and giving it rave reviews.

Daniel Radcliffe, however, is ‘yet to see’ the play, explaining that it would be difficult to attend without being recognised.

‘I just feel it would not be a relaxing evening at the theatre’, he said. ‘I assume every night there are 1,000 Harry Potter fans in the audience.’

Having played the role of Harry Potter in the film series for over a decade, it seems strange that Daniel hasn’t made an appearance at the play – especially considering how much of a theatre fan he is, performing on the West End himself.

Having previously starred in Equus, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and The Cripple of Inishmaan, he will soon return to the West End to star in the 50th Anniversary celebration production of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Radcliffe has previously expressed his interest in seeing Stephen Colbert’s Harry Potter production, explaining ‘I feel like I want to see the show. I am genuinely intrigued and I've heard it's fantastic.’ Hopefully Rupert and Emma will help him see sense, both loving their Harry Potter and the Cursed Child experiences.

Rupert Grint went to see the play back in August, posing backstage afterwards with the grown up Ron Weasley, Paul Hornley. It was Emma Watson, however, who was the first of the three to experience the production, attending back in July and raving about the experience on her Facebook page.

‘Yesterday I went to see the Cursed Child. I came in with no idea what to expect and it was AMAZING,’ she wrote on Facebook. ‘Some things about the play were, I think, possibly even more beautiful than the films. Having seen it I felt more connected to Hermione and the stories than I have since Deathly Hallows came out, which was such a gift.’

She continued: ‘Meeting Noma and seeing her on stage was like meeting my older self and have her tell me everything was going to be alright, which as you can imagine was immensely comforting (and emotional).’