The Hogwarts Express is gaining steam. HBO’s hotly anticipated, 10-year TV adaptation of the Harry Potter novels goes into production in the coming months.
Although precious little about the mega-budget series – from casting to release dates – has been confirmed, Potter fans and media watchers have been poring over the clues that have emerged so far to piece together what a return to JK Rowling’s fantasy world will entail. It is as close to a guaranteed mega-hit as it is possible to have. Here is everything we know so far.
Who Could Be in the Cast?
Like the films, the series is sure to be a Who’s Who of A-list talent, with budgets that dwarf almost everything else on TV. The only performer to confirm their participation so far is the Conclave star John Lithgow, who has been cast as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
Lithgow, 79, said that he did not expect to be asked to follow in the footsteps of Richard Harris, Michael Gambon and Jude Law (who all played Dumbledore in the Wizarding World films). “Well, it came as a total surprise to me. I just got the phone call at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because it’s going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I’m afraid,” he said in February. “But I’m very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to Harry Potter. That’s why it’s been such a hard decision. I’ll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I’ve said yes.”
HBO has yet to publicly announce that the role is Lithgow’s, however, and it has kept other casting choices firmly under wraps. That has not stopped the rumor mill turning: I May Destroy You star Paapa Essiedu is hotly tipped to take the role of potions master Severus Snape, while Ozark’s Janet McTeer is thought to be in negotiations to play deputy headmistress Minerva McGonagall, a role that has previously been linked with Sharon Horgan and Rachel Weisz, and Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy has been linked with the part of evil Lord Voldemort.
The Rumored Harry Potter Cast So Far:
- John Lithgow (as Dumbledore)
- Cillian Murphy (Lord Voldemort)
- Janet McTeer (Professor McGonagall)
- Paapa Essiedu (Severus Snape)
- Brett Goldstein/Mark Addy (Hagrid)
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Aunt Petunia)
Who Will Play Harry, Ron and Hermione?
More than 32,000 children responded to a public casting call to play the world’s three most famous young wizards last year in the hope of landing the role of a lifetime. Producers whittled down audition tapes and have been running workshops and screen tests. It has been widely speculated that the successors to Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson – who portrayed Harry, Ron and Hermione in all eight films – will be confirmed next month.
These will be the most important casting decisions, as they will be expected to carry the show and deal with huge public scrutiny for years. It seems a fair bet that the leads will be a more diverse bunch than their predecessors. There is an expectation that Granger will be cast as a black actress, given that Noma Dumezweni played the role in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and Rowling has previously said that “Hermione can be a black woman with my absolute blessing and enthusiasm”. In addition, the team have suggested they are looking for a “quirky” Granger, rather than somebody “conventionally beautiful”.
How Will the Series Be Different from the Films?
HBO boss Casey Bloys has said that the series will be a “very, very specifically British 1990s production”.
The series is being overseen by Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod, Brits who are both alumni of HBO’s Succession.
One need only look at their track record to know that the series will not merely be a rehash of the films. Gardiner worked on the TV adaptation of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials; while Mylod’s hits include Game of Thrones and The Menu, a Ralph Fiennes horror satirizing fine dining. It is expected that the series will be darker than the films, with HBO looking for a slightly older viewership than the pre-teens who were the primary target of the cinematic pictures.
Friends of Gardiner – who wrote her master’s thesis on the importance of darkness in kids’ stories and has spoken of her dislike for patronizing children – say that she wants to bring a grittier, “Wednesday/Tim Burton vibe” to the series.
Perhaps most notably, the characters will be the same age as they are in the books, with each series presumably following the school year. That means, for instance, that potions master Severus Snape (played by the inimitable Alan Rickman in the films) will be in his early thirties on the small screen. Essiedu is 34; Rickman, by contrast, was 55 when the first film was released.
The exception is Dumbledore, who lived to the ripe old age of 115. Lithgow is unlikely to want to be working in his twelfth decade.
Is JK Rowling Involved?
Despite selling more than 600 million Harry Potter books and amassing a fortune of almost $1.2 billion (according to the Sunday Times Rich List), Rowling has become a polarizing character in recent years for her public contributions to the transgender debate. “That’s a very online conversation, very nuanced and complicated and not something we’re going to get into,” Bloys said at an investor presentation in April 2023. “Our priority is what’s on the screen.”
The 59-year-old author is key to the whole series: she serves as its executive producer and will have the final say on all the casting choices.
Rowling praised HBO for “preserving the integrity” of her books and said that the new adaptation will “allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long-form television series”.
Will the Original Stars Return?
Probably not. Many of the original cast members – including Radcliffe, Grint and Watson – have criticized Rowling’s trans views, while others (including Gambon and Rickman) have died.
Jason Isaacs, who played the villainous Lucius Malfoy in the films, was asked about whether he would mount a comeback to the Wizarding World at the premiere of The White Lotus in February. “I’m hoping to come back as Hermione,” he said, not entirely seriously. “I sent my audition tape in and I’ve yet to hear. But they have my number.”
When Will the Series Be Broadcast?
Filming at the Warner Bros studio in Leavesden, Hertfordshire, is not scheduled to start until the summer, so it is unlikely that it will hit our screens before 2027.
Liam Kelly is an arts-and-entertainment correspondent, covering everything from books and TV to film and theater for The Sunday Times of London
