Jason Isaacs thinks Johnny Flynn's portrayal of Lucius Malfoy will be totally different to his

He told Entertainment Weekly: "Johnny will do his own thing. Maybe he'll be more charming. I doubt that he'll look like me, because that was the look I came up with and he's far too original to want to copy anything."

Asked if Johnny had got in touch with him about the role, he added: "If he had, I wouldn't tell anyone.

"I texted him, and I can say that because that's my domain to talk about. I texted because we did a film together and we were friendly. He's absolutely delightful and phenomenally talented, and I have no doubt he's going to do something completely different from what I did because I did my own thing."

Jason is looking forward to seeing the new series because he thinks it will be a total departure from the movies.

He said: "They're redesigning everything from scratch.

"They're redesigning Hogwarts and the costumes and they're writing all these fabulous new scripts that are expanding each book into whole season. And it'll be fab - it'll be for a new generation. It'll be their version of Harry Potter."

While The White Lotus star previously claimed he will be "long forgotten" once someone else plays Lucius, he insisted that "what will never go away are the books."

He said: "It all starts and comes from the books, and the books are beloved. But Johnny's great.

"I can't wait to see what everyone does, frankly, all the cast are amazing.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing what John Lithgow does. All of them."

And Jason admitted it is a relief to be able to watch the show without it seeming "narcissistic".

He said: "It's going to be fab because it's not like I watch the films, because I'm in them, so that's a bit weird for me. But now I can watch them with unalloyed fandom instead of thinking there's a narcissism of watching myself."

In the Harry Potter series, Lox Pratt will take over Tom Felton's role as Lucius' son Draco Malfoy, while Dominic McLaughlin will play the titular boy wizard, and Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout will play Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley respectively.

Nick Frost has been cast as Rubeus Hagrid, John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall and Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape.