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Harry Potter's TV cast starts to take shape, as HBO names names and weighs potential Percy Jackson-level success against JK Rowling's bigotry
The staff of Hogwarts is making itself known, but no students have signed up yet
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And now we have more actors you can feel just that little bit more disappointed in than previously — wait, I mean, ‘more actors who have been added to the cast of HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter television series.’ The network has officially announced the first six cast members for the long-in-development series, confirming some previous reports and revealing some surprising new names alike.
In addition to confirming that John Lithgow will play Dumbledore and Nick Frost’s Hagrid, HBO has confirmed the following castings:
- Janet McTeer will play Minerva McGonagall
- Paapa Essiedu will play Severus Snape
- Luke Thallon will play Quirinus Quirrell
- Paul Whitehouse will play Argus Filch
Notably, all the roles announced so far are for adults; Warner Bros. Television boss Channing Dungey said in an interview just last week, “We are not yet ready to announce the kids, we’re still working our way through that process.” In the same interview, she also said that the studio was “still weighing a couple of different options” for who’ll play the series’ big bad Voldemort.
The series is a priority for Warner Bros. despite Potter creator J.K. Rowling’s transformation into an openly anti-trans bigot over the past few years, a move that has disgusted fans and significantly reduced excitement surrounding all things Harry Potter. Rowling will be attached to the series as an executive producer, with HBO releasing a statement that the series will be a “faithful adaptation” of her work.
The show's importance for WB Television is perhaps understandable when you remember that Disney's adaptation of Percy Jackson & The Olympians outperformed Marvel and Star Wars on Disney+ in 2024, despite no new episodes of the series premiering in that timeframe. When done right, YA fantasy can be a significant draw — and with seven books' worth of material to get through, a Harry Potter series could be a long-lived success for the studio, no matter how hateful the original author may be. It'll be interesting to see how involved Rowling will be in promoting the show, considering her rhetoric.
Filming is expected to begin later this year, with a potential debut in 2026.
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