THE biggest name in British cinema reappeared with fitting fanfare yesterday but, despite the best efforts of the Harry Potter marketing machine, the event was overshadowed by the size of its star.

A year after his last film appearance as the schoolboy wizard, 13-year-old Daniel Radcliffe cut a strikingly different figure as he entered Guildhall in London for the launch of the next Harry Potter instalment, The Chamber of Secrets. A full eight inches taller and an octave lower in voice, Radcliffe immediately sparked speculation that he would soon outgrow his role.

Under guidance from the film’s producers, to whom he is currently contracted for one further outing as Potter, the teenager offered a cautious appraisal of his chances of retaining the role. “Every film takes a lot of time, 10 or 11 months. I am just concentrating on what I am doing at the moment,” he said.

Pressed on the future of the Potter film franchise, which has made £600 million in just one year, the producer David Heyman said that he was keen to continue Radcliffe’s spell in the role.

“His height is not an issue at all,” he said. “He’s just 13 and children do shoot up at that age. He’s doing three definitely and then we’ll see beyond that.”

One of Radcliffe’s child co-stars, Rupert Grint, was more optimistic about his future as Ron Weasley, Harry Potter’s best friend. He, too, is signed up for the film of J. K. Rowling’s third book, The Prisoner of Azkaban, which starts filming in February. “I would like to do more of them, maybe five,” he said.

Other stars attending yesterday’s launch of The Chamber of Secrets included Robbie Coltrane, who reprises his role from last year’s The Philosopher’s Stone as Hagrid the half-giant, and Jason Isaacs, who appears as the scheming Lucius Malfoy.

Hundreds of journalists from around the world, including several dozen Japanese reporters armed with interpreters, packed into the Guildhall’s Great Hall, a vast banqueting hall reminiscent of the one that appears in Rowling’s fictional school, Hogwarts. There was even room for two owls, also stars of the film, to stretch their wings in one corner.

Driven by one of the most sophisticated marketing operations, the November 15 release of The Chamber of Secrets will start a six-week period tipped to be the most successful ever for British cinemas.

More than half of the UK’s 3,000 screens are expected to show Harry Potter’s second outing and Die Another Day, the latest James Bond adventure, which opens a week later. The next Lord of the Rings blockbuster, The Two Towers, will send ticket sales soaring further on its release in mid-December.

Experts expect Potter to top the pile. A darker film than The Philosopher’s Stone, The Chamber of Secrets moves at a faster pace and pitches many more challenges at its young hero, including a monstrous basilisk and hundreds of giant spiders. Such was the reaction by preview audiences that the film has been issued with a warning to all arachnophobics.

Chris Columbus, the film’s director, issued a warning to parents yesterday. “If you are thinking of taking a seven-year-old child or under, you have to talk to them and prepare them,” he said. “Parents need to know their kids and how they are going to react.”

The scarier moments in The Chamber of Secrets are offset by a star turn from Kenneth Branagh, another of the host of British actors appearing in the film. As Gilderoy Lockhart, a narcissistic wizard with matinee-idol looks, Branagh steals scenes with as much abandon as the hearts of his many female admirers.

Other British stars appearing in the film include Richard Harris, Dame Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman and Miriam Margolyes.

Aside from being a showcase for British acting talent, the Harry Potter film franchise, which is based at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire, has emerged as vital to the country’s flagging film industry. Figures compiled by Screen International yesterday showed that inward investment dropped by £310 million last year.

The collapse has been blamed on a fall in the number of blockbusters being shot in Britain following an economic downturn in America.

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