More Potential Harry Potter Actors Rumored

Television

The Harry Potter HBO series is beginning the casting process, and while some names are popping up, it may be going slower than we thought a couple of days ago. Deadline has some new information about potential actors, with a few names being rumored for some of the more prominent adult roles. In addition to Mark Rylance, whose name came up a couple of days ago, Mark Strong is apparently also in contention for Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts played by Richard Harris and, after his unfortunate passing, Michael Gambon in the film series. (The great Gambon also recently passed away.) Sharon Horgan, the star and co-creator of a series called Bad Sisters, is a possibility for Professor Minerva McGonagall, the deputy headmistress played by Maggie Smith on the silver screen. (Dame Maggie Smith has passed on as well; we’re losing the legends.) It’s possible Rachel Weisz of The Mummy, About a Boy, and Enemy at the Gates is also wanted for Professor McGonagall, but Deadline says there are conflicting reports on that score. Brett Goldstein of Ted Lasso and Thor: Love and Thunder is supposedly up for the role of gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid, who was portrayed by Robbie Coltrane in the movies (another now-deceased actor). As for the kids, the casting director says that 32,000 hopefuls have sent in audition tapes to play Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Finally, while the big news this week was that Paapa Essiedu was up for the role of Severus Snape, Deadline’s sources tell them that no one has been formally offered a role, which contradicts what The Hollywood Reporter said about Essideu.

The most interesting part to me (insofar as I find anything related to Harry Potter interesting) is that no one has actually been offered a part yet. It puts the Severus Snape announcement into a different perspective. As has been discussed pretty much everywhere, this would be a race swap, something many assumed would happen (despite Warner Bros.’s assurances that the Harry Potter HBO series would be a faithful adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s books), but were dreading it nonetheless. I wrote at the time that it seemed deliberate that they announced a race-swapped casting choice immediately; to me, it seemed like a thrown gauntlet, a message that this would be a “new and improved” Harry Potter for modern audiences, so get on board or get out of the way. But if it’s true that no offers have been made, perhaps there’s another reason that was the first name to leak and that it was presented as being so far along. Maybe Warner Bros. was testing the waters, seeing how Harry Potter fans would react to an all-new, all-different Severus Snape before they made any final decisions. If so, it was quite shrewd on their part; if fans seem cool with it, they can move ahead with Paapa Essiedu and pat themselves on the back for being progressive heroes. If the fans get angry, they can simply deny it was ever true and move on to another actor. I’ll enjoy watching how this plays out.

Otherwise, I don’t know because I’m not a big enough Harry Potter fan. The Deadline piece says that the idea of going younger with some of these characters than the movies did is actually more in keeping with the books. That makes sense, and it also lets the characters age more noticeably as the show goes along, much like the kids surely will. Mark Strong is an interesting choice to play Dumbledore; I’d have thought he’d be more suited for Snape, at least based on the roles he usually plays. Even when he’s a good guy, Strong tends to be a bit dark and menacing, which seems more like Snape than Dumbledore. Mark Rylance feels like a better fit for Dumbledore, actually. I don’t know Sharon Horgan from Adam (IMDb says she was in Game Night; I liked that movie, but I only saw it once, and I don’t remember her), so I have no idea if she’d be a good McGonagall, although I imagine Rachel Weisz would be. (It’s weird to think of her as being old enough for a role like that.) I’ve only seen Brett Goldstein in Thor: Love and Thunder, and he was just in the mid-credits scene for a few seconds, so I don’t have much of an opinion about him. Filming isn’t supposed to start until the summer of 2025, so we probably won’t know too much for a while, but considering how many people love Harry Potter, this will be a trending topic well before anyone is officially cast.

Let us know what you think of these potential Harry Potter actors in the comments!

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