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Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

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EXCLUSIVE: A beloved actor is poised to play a beloved Harry Potter character. Six-time Emmy winner John Lithgow is in final negotiations to portray Professor Albus Dumbledore in HBO‘s high-profile series adaptation of the hugely popular fantasy books, sources tell Deadline.

HBO declined to comment. “We appreciate that such a high-profile series will draw a lot of rumor and speculation,” the network said in a statement. “As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalize deals.”

The Harry Potter series, designed to run over a decade, comes from writer/showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director/executive producer Mark Mylod. Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, at the time of the original announcement called the show a “faithful adaptation” of J.K. Rowling’s novels which will “dive deep into each of the iconic books.”

Powerful wizard Dumbledore is the headmaster of the Hogwarts wizarding school and the leader of the Order of the Phoenix whose goal is fighting the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort.

Dumbledore was portrayed by the late Richard Harris and Michael Gambon in the Harry Potter movie franchise. Jude Law played a younger version of the character in the Fantastic Beasts prequel films.

While all of them are British or Irish and Lithgow is American, he has played British characters. He won the most recent of his six Emmy Awards for his portrayal of Winston Churchill on The Crown has been playing Roald Dahl on stage in London.

The Harry Potter TV series, which will be filmed at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden where the movies were shot, is slated to debut on HBO in late 2026 or early 2027.

Lithgow is on track to be be the first actor set for a project whose casting has attracted enormous interest. The rumor mill had been going into overdrive for months with speculation on who would play the books’ most iconic characters. Those rumored have ranged from Paapa Essiedu for Potions Master Snape and Sharon Horgan and Lesley Manville for Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall to Brett Goldstein for Hogwarts’ gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid and even Oscar winner Cillian Murphy for Lord Voldemort, with Ralph Fiennes, who played the role in the films, backing the idea.

Additionally, some 32,000 kids sent audition tapes for the lead roles of Harry, Hermione and Ron, with the selection progressing.

https://deadline.com/2025/02/harry-p...re-1236285903/

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

I like Lithgow, of course, but assuming the show is successful that seems like quite a years commitment to an actor his age.

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

Lithgow is a great actor, but he's almost 80. I was kind of hoping they might cast someone younger in their late 50s or early 60s. I'd hate to have to have another recast of Dumbledore.

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Did they run out of older British actors?

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

I was hoping for Mark Rylance as Dumbledore since he was one of the first people rumored for Dumbledore.

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Originally Posted by lwhy? (Post 14553019)

I was hoping for Mark Rylance as Dumbledore since he was one of the first people rumored for Dumbledore.

I think Rylance would be closer to the book Dumbledore. Never liked Gambon but Richard Harris was perfect. If they are kids seems really hard to do the whole series with the amount of time between seasons lately. Lithgow will not likely survive.

I will likely watch,

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

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Originally Posted by johnnysd (Post 14554200)

I really liked Harris as Dumbledore too. I wasn't that big of a fan of Gambon.

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

My favorite Dumbledore performance was Gambon in Prisoner of Azkaban. Between his seemingly pointless but entirely purposeful rambling about strawberries to his final line ("Did what? Goodnight") I thought he really captured the whimsy. To me, Harris was too frail.

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Yeah, I thought Richard Harris seemed... unwell... in the first two HP films. I understand that Dumbledore was an old man, but he still should have been hale and hearty. I can understand why they went with Harris... guy was an institution... but he probably wasn't going to survive the series. Gambon was at least physically imposing.

My ideal Dumbledore would have been Tom Baker. Physically imposing, imperious voice, a little mad. A whole new generation of kids would have gone nuts for him.

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

Nick Frost in talks to play Hagrid. I like that casting if it happens: https://tvline.com/casting-news/harr...bo-1235422509/

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

First six cast members confirmed

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

Uh oh! Black dude is playing Snape. This should go over well.

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Originally Posted by stvn1974 (Post 14583774)

Uh oh! Black dude is playing Snape. This should go over well.

Yup. Saw all sorts of precious replies in the comments like "Is Matthew McConaughey going to play Hermione? "

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

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Originally Posted by stvn1974 (Post 14583774)

Uh oh! Black dude is playing Snape. This should go over well.

Hermione has typically been played by black actresses in the Cursed Child play, so this is nothing new.

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

Has Nick Frost lost a lot of weight? I barely recognized him in that photo.

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Originally Posted by Decker (Post 14583792)

Yup. Saw all sorts of precious replies in the comments like "Is Matthew McConaughey going to play Hermione? "

Hermione with a Texas accent? C’mon, man…

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

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Originally Posted by Josh-da-man (Post 14583834)

Has Nick Frost lost a lot of weight? I barely recognized him in that photo.

Yeah. I follow him on Instagram. It’s been crazy seeing the progress over the years.

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

While I love Lithgow, I think he is too old for this. He's going to be 80 when this starts filming, and while I wish him the best of health, seems a little bit of a gamble for a long term project.

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The actors are getting some backlash online for being involved in a JK Rowling project despite her transphobe public posts. Regardless, HP is good entertainment and I still enjoy the films. I'll give this a watch.

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The feeling I'm getting from this project is that it's going to be a hot mess.

The race-swapping is going to be a point of contention among the "fandom menace" crowd. As as are Rowling's TERF proclivities, which have been intensifying over the years, on the opposite side of the political spectrum. I suspect that fandom will turn on itself over this like we saw with Star Wars, The Last Jedi, in particular. Bad actor culture warriors love to pounce on stuff like this, so it's going to be a constant back-and-forth with people at each others throats. And, on top of that, it seems like this is only being made to have new Wizarding World franchise content put out, and they're remaking the moves after Fantastic Beasts floundered because they lack confidence that new content will work.

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I guess I missed the part in the books about “The White Boy Who Lived” and his magical White Muggle Girlfriend.

Sorry, I always find it funny when “race swapping” gets slapped on “my mind said it was this.”

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Snape being played by a black actor is OK, but Snape being played by a handsome actor doesn't work, if you want to stay true to the character.

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Originally Posted by Abob Teff (Post 14584463)

I guess I missed the part in the books about “The White Boy Who Lived” and his magical White Muggle Girlfriend.

Who is his muggle girlfriend? I must have missed that, too.

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Sorry, I always find it funny when “race swapping” gets slapped on “my mind said it was this.”

One of Snape's defining character traits is that he's a pale-skinned (I believe "sallow" is the frequently used adjective), basement-dwelling creep.

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

This series has a lot working against it for them to add a casting controversy. No matter what you think of the casting, it’s hard to deny Rings of Power was hurt a lot by similar controversy. Add to that the Harry Potter films are beloved and you have the deck stacked against this for sure. I like to think of it as picking someone the polar opposite of Rickman so as to pay respect to him and not try to “recast” him.

Also don’t get casting Lithgow. Is he going to do a British accent? Also I guess they want to replace Dumbledore in this series too because he likely won’t make it the whole series if they go 7-8 seasons.

Re: Harry Potter Wizarding World series coming to HBO

Making Snape black is gonna really change the dynamics of Potters dad bullying him. Not sure how they will tackle that but the optics may be pretty poor.