I’ve read all the Harry Potter books and I used to be into the movies, but I have to admit that the last film was so damn boring that I walked out halfway. (I left during a party scene which was maybe an hour in, I’m not sure.) It’s like they’re just phoning it in with these Harry Potter movies lately. The last one, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was the sixth in the series and came out a full eight years after the first. The movies have generally matured with their fanbase and are more adult now, but a lot of us have lost interest in Harry Potter and they’re not doing much to keep it interesting. It’s always been solid, but you can kind of tell that they’re thinning out the material to squeeze as much money out of the franchise as possible.

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe is a rare leading man who is both comfortable in the nude and pretty matter-of-fact about it. The kid looks good, and he’s not full of himself or too shy to be seen. He was nude on stage in Equus last year and handled it all very well.

Director David Yates, who is responsible for the super-boring last film and it’s predecessor, the more-decent Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, recently made an announcement that Radcliffe would appear “nude” in the upcoming film Harry Potter and the Deathly Gallows. In case you didn’t get the point, he said that Radcliffe would be undressed in two different scenes, but that “we’re still thinking about how we present it“:

Director David Yates says the upcoming film “Harry Potter and the Deathly Gallows” will feature a “very sexy” scene in which the boy magician appears nude alongside co-star Emma Watson, according to the Telegraph. The scene will be imagined by Rupert Grint’s character.

“We’ll create something that feels very sexy and very intriguing to bring about a reaction in Rupert,” Yates said. “Dan has appeared nude in the past. There are a couple of scenes in the new film in which he will undress, but we’re still thinking about how we present it.”

Yates said Radcliffe will also appear in the buff later in the film. “There is another scene in King’s Cross station, where Harry almost dies and sees Dumbledore,” Yates said. “In that scene, he will also be naked.”

[From Parade]

Of course this announcement was just coincidentally made right after the blockbuster success of another teen-oriented fantasy franchise (one that’s much less cerebral) in which the male leads whip off their shirts in just about every other scene. The shirtless scenes were so gratuitous in that film it was laughable. I doubt we’ll see Harry Potter’s butt and there most certainly won’t be full frontal, but there will be enough of Radcliffe naked to generate buzz about the final two Harry Potter films. The final Harry Potter book by JK Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, will be divided into two films, with Part 1 out in November, 2010 and Part 2 out in July 2011. Some of the teens who were watching this series when it first came out are now young mothers. Maybe Harry Potter will get some new fans for his big reveal.

Daniel Radcliffe at a premiere in New York on July 19, 2009. Credit: WENN