The new trio’s reported payday

HBO’s new Harry Potter series has barely begun to show its cards and already the numbers are doing a fair amount of heavy lifting. According to a report, the young actors cast as Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are each being paid £500,000, or roughly $660,000, for the first season.

Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout were revealed last May as the latest trio to step into the Wizarding World. This month, viewers also got their first look at them in action in a new trailer for the series, which is adapting Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

As one TV insider told The Sun: “If they keep this up, they’re on track to be multi-millionaires before they turn 18.”

That is, of course, the sort of sentence that sounds both glamorous and slightly alarming, which tends to be how child-star paychecks go.

Why the money is not automatically theirs to spend

The figures may suggest instant wealth, but child actors do not always get unrestricted access to everything they earn. In the United States, productions are required to protect part of a minor’s income under the Coogan Law.

That law says 15% of a child performer’s earnings must be placed in a blocked trust account, known as a Coogan Account, so the money is preserved until the performer turns 18.

The rule dates back to 1939 and was introduced in California after the collapse of child star Jackie Coogan’s fortune. His mother and stepfather spent the entire $4 million he had earned, a sum that would be worth about $70 million to $80 million today.

The UK, where the new Harry Potter production is being made, does not have a direct equivalent. So there is no single law forcing parents to lock away a child actor’s earnings. That does not mean the money is simply free for the taking, because contracts often require some of it to be placed in trust until the actor is older.

On top of that, UK theft and fraud laws still apply. In other words, the money belongs to the child, not to any adult who happens to be nearby with opinions about budgeting.

The young cast will still have to deal with tax. They must pay income tax on earnings above £12,570, just like adults, although they are exempt from National Insurance until they are over 16.

At present, Dominic McLaughlin and Alastair Stout are both 12, while Arabella Stanton is 11. Because of that, it is expected their guardians will place the money into a trust fund that they can access at 18, with withdrawals made for certain expenses in the meantime.

How the original Harry Potter trio compared

The reported salary for the new cast is large, but it is not without precedent in this franchise. Back when Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint first entered the series, they were also ordinary children suddenly handed one of the biggest jobs in film.

For 2001’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Radcliffe was reportedly paid about $1 million. Watson and Grint’s exact first-film salaries are not publicly confirmed, but both are thought to have earned a little less than Radcliffe.

Those numbers grew quickly as the films continued. By the time the final two instalments, Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2, arrived, Radcliffe reportedly earned around $50 million combined, while Watson and Grint each made about $30 million over the same period.

Across all eight films, Radcliffe is estimated to have made more than $95 million. Watson reportedly earned $60 million to $70 million, and Grint around $50 million.

So yes, $660,000 a head is already a serious payday. But if HBO’s series turns into anything close to the phenomenon the original films became, these figures may end up looking more like the opening chapter than the final one.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone premieres on December 25, 2026.