In an interview with Collider, Frost gave his thoughts on the role. Particularly, he offered some insight into how he'll handle a character that was already portrayed perfectly by the late Robbie Coltrane, who played Hagrid in all eight "Harry Potter" movies.
"While I'm really aware of what went before me in terms of Robbie's amazing performance, I'm never going to try and be Robbie," Frost explained. "I'm going to try and do something, not 'different,' I think you have to be respectful to the subject matter, but within that, there's scope for minutia." He later added, "[Hagrid's] funny! I want it to be funny and cheeky and scared and protective and childlike. That's what I'm planning on doing."
It's a quote that demonstrates a strong awareness of just how much of a tightrope this reboot will be for the cast and crew; they'll have to put their own special spin on a story that was already adapted wonderfully in the 2000s, but they can't change things too much because book fans want a faithful adaptation. It's especially tough because the adult actors especially were amazing in those movies. Fans will poke fun at the occasionally stiff acting from the child actors involved, but few will deny that the adult actors nailed it. Maggie Smith's Professor McGonagall, Alan Rickman's Severus Snape, and Robbie Coltrane's Hagrid felt exactly how readers always imagined them.
