Recording For Harry Potter’s Audiobook Release Was Way More ‘Real’ Than You’d Guess (And, Yes, Food Was Involved)

The magic is still brewing in the Wizarding World, with the upcoming Harry Potter series in the works. However, with this book-to-screen adaptation unlikely to hit our screens before 2027, there’s another offering that’s worth checking out — Audible’s Harry Potter: The Full Cast Audio Editions. The audiobook series features many phenomenal actors, and those portraying Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger recently opened up about how real the producers made the experience for them.

Frankie Treadaway, Max Lester and Arabella Stanton have been cast as the voices of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively, in the first three books of the Audible series (the first of which is available now). In speaking to Variety about the process, Lester admitted that his favorite scenes were where Ron was eating, because producers served real food during the taping. He said:

Spoken like the teenager he is — the more takes, the more food they bring. It’s kind of like he was actually in the Great Hall, where food just magically appeared before him.

It also sounds so much better than what Rupert Grint and the other Harry Potter movie actors experienced — the stench of rotten food permeating the Hogwarts set as the meats and fruits sat out for days while they filmed around it.

Providing the actors with delicious meals during those scenes wasn’t the only step the production took to get the actors into character. According to Arabella Stanton — who, in addition to providing her voice on The Full Cast Audio Editions, will also portray Hermione in the HBO series — they were also given real wands in the studio. She said:

Those may seem like small touches, but to the actors who are trying to convey magic using just their voices, it really does seem to have had an effect. Matthew Macfadyen, who is voicing Voldemort in the audiobooks, also mentioned getting a wand in the studio, which he referred to as “a sort of comfort wand.”

Other actors who are signed onto the Audible project include self-proclaimed Potter nerd Kit Harington as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart, Hugh Laurie as Albus Dumbledore, Riz Ahmed as Severus Snape, Keira Knightley as Delores Umbridge, Iwan Rheon as Remus Lupin, Mark Addy as Hagrid and many more.

The full-cast version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is currently available on Audible, with books being released monthly through May 2026. You can also find all eight Harry Potter movies streaming with an HBO Max subscription, which is also where the upcoming series will land when it is released.