It is with this level of fervour that fans of Harry Potter have been worrying about the casting for the new HBO adaptation of the series, which is expected to debut in 2026, nearly two decades after the release of JK Rowling’s first book. On the Reddit page r/HarryPotterOnHBO, which has more than 40,000 members, people have become obsessed with the casting of the series, constantly making suggestions for who could play beloved – and often fairly niche – characters. Andrew Scott as Barty Crouch Junior? Harry Styles as Gilderoy Lockhart? Sure, why not!
The existence of the series at all has been subject to plenty of scepticism. Since it was announced in 2023, it’s been seen by many people as a cynical intellectual property grab, an opportunity to milk an already ubiquitous franchise for all it’s worth, in the vein of mega-budget series like The Rings of Power, or Disney’s tedious live-action remake project.
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry, Ron and Hermione in ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ (2001) (Photo: Reuters)But the cast so far seems to be treading the line, with a host of mostly British talent, a loyalty to Rowling’s vision and some welcome freshness. We don’t yet know who will play the three main characters – they will be (probably unknown) child actors. But we have John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as Snape, Janet McTeer as Professor McGonagall, Nick Frost as Hagrid, Luke Thallon as Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch.
Nick Frost will play Hagrid (Photo by Borja B. Hojas/Getty Images)
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Read MoreIt’s the mark of a good story that reading it conjures such strong images and attachments to characters. The stakes are raised even higher by the original films, with whose all-star cast many fans now associate the characters (Alan Rickman as Snape, Maggie Smith as McGonagall and Julie Walters as Molly Weasley, for example, are all iconic performances). A 25-year-old fan told the Guardian yesterday: “I don’t want my experience to be ruined if they create something that’s too far from what JK Rowling originally wrote.”
But this announcement is a sign that it might just go right, giving the original series the longform treatment it deserves, and injecting new life into a beloved British institution. Putting brilliant new faces to old names is the first step in achieving that.
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