Catching up: Harry Potter cast – Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are doing their best to break out of the Hogwart’s mold.

In theaters Friday: Battle of the Year, Prisoners
New on Blu-ray/DVD: Behind the Candelabra, The Bling Ring, World War Z

Harry, Hermoine and Ron. Three names now cast in (sorcerer’s) stone as modern fantasy icons thanks to the massive success of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels and the blockbuster films on which they were based. But while the author is returning to her familiar world of wizards with a new film, the cast who embodied this trio of roles in eight hit movies over the course of a decade has the challenge of truly moving on in order to diversify and prolong their young careers.

Playing such beloved and, lets get real, geekily-obsessed over, characters for that long can’t help but invite type-casting, a shackle some actors cannot escape for the rest of their careers (Mark Hammill never shook the Yoda off his back).

Less than two years after hanging up their wands, Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint are doing their best to break out of the Hogwart’s mold, to show audiences something fresh and, most importantly, memorable.

For sheer variety, Watson is leading the charge. After impressing in the drama The Perks of Being a Wallflower and vapidly stealing from the rich in Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring (out on Blu-ray tomorrow), she went against type this summer by appearing in the gross-out meta-comedy This is the End. Despite all of that, it is her 2014 film that should shatter the image of her studious, know-it-all wizard. Darren Aronofsky’s passion project, Noah, finally arrives in theaters this March. Playing the boat-builder’s daughter opposite Russell Crowe in what is sure to be a controversial and eyebrow raising effort from the talented director, Watson has her best shot at another blockbuster with this Biblical epic.

While Watson has already appeared in several higher-profile pictures, Radcliffe has taken a more independent route for his second act, and that continues with this fall’s Beat Generation film Kill Your Darlings, a literary drama cast as a heady and complex relationship thriller. Staring as a young Allen Ginsberg opposite Dane Dehaan, Ben Foster and Michael C. Hall, the film should be a festival hit and provide Radcliffe a perfect platform as an actor’s showcase. If Radcliffe really brings it in Darlings, he’ll continue to field offers for roles that don’t remotely resemble the “the boy who lived.”

Of course, this fall Radcliffe also returns to the world of fantasy with indie horror Horns (based on the Joe Hill novel), that sees him awaken after his girlfriend’s mysterious death with devilish horns growing from his head. It will be interesting to see which direction Radcliffe’s career will take, but he may be finding his own unique footing with a blend of arty thrillers and independent dramas.

Perhaps the Potter star with the most to prove is Grint. The ginger actor, who has yet to show a terrible amount of range on screen, is, nevertheless, breaking out, first with a small role as Cheetah Chrome in CBGB, Randall Miller’s ode to the legendary New York City music club. But the true test will be 2014’s Enemy of Man, a wild adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth with Sean Bean.

Watch the trailers for Kill Your Darlings and CBGB, and see Watson discuss The Bling Ring below: