SAN DIEGO — J.K. Rowling published a new Harry Potter short story last month. And Daniel Radcliffe braced himself once again.

The 25-year-old British star faces consistent and persistent questions from fans and the press about whether he’ll return to the character that he spent much of his childhood playing. Rowling’s story of a 34-year-old Potter posted online was not going to help matters.

“I go, ‘OK, thank you Jo. I’ll be answering questions about this,’” Radcliffe said in a recent interview. “She can’t help it. She wrote me 10 years older and people are still asking me if I’m going to be doing it. He’s 10 years older than I am in this story so it’s really not even a hypothetical at the moment. I would obviously never say never because that’s a foolish thing to say, but I would have to think long and hard before I ever went back to anything.”

Radcliffe was at Comic-Con International in San Diego promoting one of his two upcoming films, the darkly comic horror tale “Horns.” 

“Horns,” directed by Alexandre Aja, is set for release Oct. 31. Radcliffe’s other new film, the romantic comedy “What If,” opened this weekend. — AFP