HBO’s new Hermione Granger was 11 when she got the part, the same age Emma Watson was when her first Harry Potter film came out.
Her name is Arabella Stanton, and she beat a huge field to win it.
Who Is Arabella Stanton?
HBO named her Hermione on May 27, 2025, next to Dominic McLaughlin as Harry and Alastair Stout as Ron.
The trio came out of more than 30,000 auditions.
She came from musical theatre.
Stanton played the title role in Matilda the Musical in the West End from 2023 to 2024 and appeared in Starlight Express in the summer of 2024.
Hermione is her first screen role, which puts her in the same position Watson was in back in 2000.
Casting director Lucy Bevan told the story in the HBO Max special Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic.
Stanton recited the poem Invictus for her audition. In a later scene, where Hermione talks to her parents about Harry and Ron, she got the giggles and let out a little snort.
The team showed producers that exact take as proof of her playful side.
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Bevan’s verdict: “Arabella’s snort was quite crucial in the casting process”.
Fans got their own look when her audition clip spread online. One TikTok user asked: “Are we sure she wasn’t lip syncing Emma Watson’s audio?”.
She Played Hermione Before HBO
Her first official Hermione was audio.
Arabella voices the character in Audible’s Harry Potter: The Full-Cast Audio Editions for the first 3 books, which began releasing in November 2025.
From the fourth book on, an older cast takes over the trio’s voices.
Stanton knew she was stepping into a part with a long history. “I think Hermione can be portrayed in many different ways,” she said.
She also spoke to the Associated Press in July 2025, as HBO filming began, and held the secrets locked: “they’ve cast a Mimblewimble tongue-tying spell on me”.
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Stanton came to the books at 8, after friends kept talking about them. Her decision at the time: “right I’m going to start reading the books”.
Her link to Hermione is the obvious one. “I love books. I love writing, I love reading,” she told AP.
She was honest about one difference: “I like school, but I don’t love school”.
Arabella named the Time-Turner as her favourite Hermione prop, said she had dreamt of the role since she was little, and listed Emma Watson as one of the actresses she looked up to.
What Has Emma Watson Said About The New Hermione?
As of November 2026, I found no public comment from Watson about Stanton.
Emma Watson attends the 2011 ELLE Style Awards at the Grand Connaught Rooms on February 14, 2011 in London – @Getty
Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint both wrote to their successors, and Watson has not said if she did the same.
Her father did speak up in June 2025.
Chris Watson told Times Radio that parents of the new cast face a hard road and he offered to talk with any of them.
His blunt line: “As a parent, you have to be scared”.
The Watson family knows that pressure first hand. Emma has said she felt lonely and scared in the middle films, when the fame finally hit home.
Emma Watson attends the Lancome and Emma Watson Pre-BAFTA party at the ‘Roses By…’ exhibition at The Savoy Hotel on February 10, 2012 – Dave Benett/@Getty
The parallels are clear. Both were around 11 when the world met them, both came from the stage with no screen credits, and both were picked after a huge search.
The difference is the era. Stanton enters into a role millions already have a picture of, with social media reacting to each new photo and clip.
The series premieres on December 25, 2026, on HBO and HBO Max, with season 1 adapting Philosopher’s Stone in 8 episodes.
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I am Bulgarea Candin Stefan, and I founded FamousPeopleToday.com in 2018. I’m using my bachelor’s degree in economics and 9 years of experience in blogging to guide millions of people through the incredibly complex world of celebrity net worths.