--- title: Daniel Radcliffe Is An Undercover Neo-Nazi In His New Movie description: Watch the former Harry Potter actor take on a dark thriller in 'Imperium,' playing an FBI agent who's infiltrated a right-wing terror group. canonical: https://time.com/4394072/watch-daniel-radcliffe-play-an-undercover-neo-nazi-in-the-intense-imperiumtrailer/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-05T21:55:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:34:05.067Z og:title: Daniel Radcliffe Is An Undercover Neo-Nazi In His New Movie og:description: In the upcoming 'Imperium,' Radcliffe tries on an American accent and a haircut. og:url: https://time.com/4394072/watch-daniel-radcliffe-play-an-undercover-neo-nazi-in-the-intense-imperiumtrailer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Daniel Radcliffe Is An Undercover Neo-Nazi In His New Movie twitter:description: In the upcoming 'Imperium,' Radcliffe tries on an American accent and a haircut. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Watch Daniel Radcliffe Play an Undercover Neo-Nazi in the Intense Thriller _Imperium_  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 5, 2016 9:55 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Jul 5, 2016 9:55 PM UTC Daniel Radcliffe has [never played it safe](http://time.com/4128145/daniel-radcliffe-nme-weird/?iid=sr-link7). Not when he was Harry Potter, the character who doggedly put himself in harm’s way. And not in his acting career, which kicked off with the bizarre and dark [_Equus_](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1844833,00.html?iid=sr-link1) stage play, and has since escalated to include a reanimated corpse in this summer’s super-quirky [_Swiss Army Man_](http://time.com/4371204/swiss-army-man-review/?iid=sr-link1). But Radcliffe is always trying to top his own eccentricities, and his latest release will take him in a more serious direction as an undercover white supremacist. The movie is called [_Imperium_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4781612/), and it’s based on a true story: an FBI agent, played by Radcliffe, infiltrates a neo-Nazi terror group. That means that Radcliffe tests out an American accent and a shaved head for the role, which we now have a first look at, thanks to the newly released trailer. He spends the bulk of the intense trailer looking very pale and on-edge as he goes deeper into the workings of the supremacy group, with plenty of homemade explosives on display, too. _Imperium_ co-stars seasoned actress Toni Collette, and will hits theaters this August. Watch the trailer above. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4394072/watch-daniel-radcliffe-play-an-undercover-neo-nazi-in-the-intense-imperiumtrailer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4394072/watch-daniel-radcliffe-play-an-undercover-neo-nazi-in-the-intense-imperiumtrailer/"},"headline":"Watch Daniel Radcliffe Play an Undercover Neo-Nazi in the Intense Thriller Imperium","datePublished":"2016-07-05T21:55:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:34:05.067Z","description":"Some Polyjuice Potion might have come in handy for this one.","url":"https://time.com/4394072/watch-daniel-radcliffe-play-an-undercover-neo-nazi-in-the-intense-imperiumtrailer/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Entertainment","movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4394072/watch-daniel-radcliffe-play-an-undercover-neo-nazi-in-the-intense-imperiumtrailer/","name":"Watch Daniel Radcliffe Play an Undercover Neo-Nazi in the Intense Thriller Imperium"}}]}] ```