For months now, rumors have been swirling about cast members joining HBO's new Harry Potter TV show. We've heard John Lithgow may play the kindly and wise Professor Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as the vindictive Professor Snape, Janet McTeer as the insightful Professor McGonagall, and more. Up until now, that's all these castings have been: rumors. But today HBO made it official, announcing the first six cast members of its Harry Potter series.
And lo! Pretty much every rumor we'd heard turns out to have been true. Lithgow will indeed play Dumbledore, Essiedu will play Snape, and McTeer will play McGonagall. The rumblings about Nick Frost playing the swarthy groundskeeper Hagrid were also true. But this casting announcement also contained two other actors who will have an important role to play in the show's first season.
“We are happy to announce the casting of John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu, Nick Frost, Luke Thallon and Paul Whitehouse to play Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid, Quirrell and Filch,” said Francesca Gardiner and showrunner and executive producer Mark Mylod, who's also directing multiple episodes. “We’re delighted to have such extraordinary talent onboard, and we can’t wait to see them bring these beloved characters to new life.”
Yes, Luke Thallon will play Quirrell, the Defenst Against the Dark Arts professor with an equally dark secret. He's a very important figure in the first Harry Potter novel, so obviously the show needs to include him. Paul Whitehouse will play Argus Filch, the ornery custodian who was played by Game of Thrones veteran David Bradley in the original Harry Potter movies; those are some big shoes to fill, but I'm sure Whitehouse is up to the task.
HBO has made much ado about the idea that this will be a "faithful" adaptation of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. If I'm being honest, that's always felt a little silly to me considering how faithful the movies were. But with a full season of television per book, the show will obviously have more room to get into all the little details.
The Harry Potter series is still in very early days. Francesca Gardiner serves as a writer and executive producer along with Mylod. Other executive producers include J.K. Rowling herself, along with Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film and TV, and David Heyman of Heyday Films.
It will be interesting to see how having Rowling attached will affect the series. She was a beloved figure during the height of Harry Potter mania in the early 2000s, but since then has made it her personal mission to spend as much time as possible attacking transgender people; that's certainly what she uses her massive platform and influence to talk about the most these days, rather than her writing. How that specter will loom over HBO's Harry Potter reboot, only time will tell.
Harry Potter is likely still a ways away from filming or rounding out its cast. I expect we'll be watching it in 2027 at the very earliest.
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