Stepping into the role of the greatest wizard of his time? John Lithgow isn’t too nervous about it, actually.

The Emmy-winning actor appeared on the latest episode of Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett‘s SmartLess podcast to chat about joining HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series as Albus Dumbledore, sharing that he does not expect the gig to be “that hard a job.”

“You know, Dumbledore, he’s kind of this nuclear weapon,” Lithgow explained. “He only goes off very, very occasionally. And I don’t think it’s gonna be that hard a job.”

He isn’t quite sure what his production schedule will look like once the series begins filming this summer in England, but said that he imagined that it would be easier to travel back and forth to his home base in the states than it was when he worked on The Crown. He played Winston Churchill in the historical drama, filming in England for eight months and rarely returning home.

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“The logistics are a little bit scary,” Lithgow said. “I really did have to think hard about whether to take it on but I also thought, well, I’m about to turn 80 next year.”

“If this is indeed a seven or eight-year long job, it’s a wonderful way to grow old as an actor,” added Lithgow, before quipping, “I mean, the alternative is to just be hauled out once a year to play an Alzheimer’s patient [with] an awful lot of weeping middle-aged children, you know.”

Lithgow, who said he’s already getting stopped at airports by excited Potter fans, also shared that he’s currently in the process of reading the novels in which the movies and upcoming series is based by J.K. Rowling to prepare for the role. “I seem to be behind everybody,” he said. “I’m halfway through the second of these seven novels.”

No other casting details, namely in regards to the core trio of friends Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, have been announced yet, but the upcoming series will hail from showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod, both known for their work on the Emmy-winning series Succession.

Each of the seven books will have their own season, allowing the creative team to dig deeper into the character arcs and the ever-expansive magical world of Hogwarts. Rowling, who has ignited controversy in recent years with a series of transphobic comments, will serve as executive producer of the show, described as a “faithful adaptation” of the beloved novels.

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint led the mega-hit eight-film franchise, which collectively grossed over $7 billion at the box office and catapulted its young stars to international fame. Michael Gambon and Richard Harris played Dumbledore in the feature films, while Jude Law played a younger version of the wizard in the Fantastic Beasts prequel franchise.