The 'Harry Potter' star was asked about the saga in a new interview with The Atlantic -- and he says the whole thing with J.K., who created 'Potter,' makes him really sad.

He adds, "I do look at the person that I met, the times that we met, and the books that she wrote, and the world that she created, and all of that is to me so deeply empathic." DR goes on to say that when he pushed back against J.K. a few years ago, he felt he needed to.

You'll recall ... Dan issued a statement at the time via The Trevor Project -- where he said trans women were women, period. That flew in the face of stances J.K. has taken.

Daniel continues, "[I]t would have seemed like, I don’t know, immense cowardice to me to not say something. I wanted to try and help people that had been negatively affected by the comments. And to say that if those are Jo’s views, then they are not the views of everybody associated with the 'Potter' franchise."

He even responded to something J.K. recently said about him and other 'Potter' actors who've pushed back against her -- where she said they could save their apologies on the matter.