The floodgates are opening. The other week, we learned that American actor John Lithgow would play Albus Dumbledore in HBO's upcoming Harry Potter TV show, the first major casting announcement to come out of this series. Now, Deadline has the scoop on a couple more actors circling major roles. We'd already heard that Emmy nominee Paapa Essiedu was close to nabbing the role of Harry Potter's caustic Potions professor Severus Snape; he's now closer than ever, although the deal isn't 100% done just yet. The new face in the crowd is fellow Emmy nominee Janet McTeer, who's up for the role of Transfiguration professor Minerva McGonagall.
McTeer earned her Emmy nomination playing Winston Churchill's wife Clementine in the HBO film Into the Storm, while Essiedu got his starring opposite Michael Coel in the HBO limited series I May Destroy You, playing Kwame. So the both of them are familiar to HBO.
That's McTeer above. When rumors were swirling that Rachel Weisz might get the tole of McGonagall, fans were concerned that she was too young. McTeer is 63 years old, just a few years younger than Maggie Smith was she played the character in the first Harry Potter movie way back in 2001.
I know a lot of fans are expecting big names to be cast in this show, but so far, Lithgow is the exception that proves the rule; McTeer and Essiedu have impressive resumes, but are both lower-profile. They're also both British actors. Lithgow, as the only American in the cast yet to be revealed, is also the exception in that regard.
New Harry Potter show doesn't want to reuse actors from the movies
The idea behind this new series is to adapt J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books in more detail than the movies could. Ultimately, the producers want this show to stand on its own. But that could take some work; a lot of people still remember the original Harry Potter movies fondly, and a lot of the original cast members have been asked if they'd appear in the series. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO executive Sarah Aubrey sounds like she wants the show to make a clean break.
"Yeah, I think it’s a dream job for a lot of actors in the U.K.," Aubrey said. "But the roles that we’re casting right now are for people who are going to be on the show for a decade, so that’s also a very particular gig. But the commitment is to make the books, and that’s what it could be. But there are interesting people raising their hands to be the featured adult actors that come on in later seasons, like the Sirius Blacks of the world. So, it’s been very, very fun, but we don’t want to repeat people that were in the movies. And it’s always a little nerve-wracking because people so associate those roles with certain actors, but I also think because it’s going to be eight hours of TV, we’re going to immerse them in a different actor’s performance."
Put a pin in what Aubrey said about "interesting people" raising their hands to play roles introduced later in the series. I think the producers are right to mostly cast people who are right for the roles even if they don't have particularly high profiles, but I wouldn't mind a big name popping up here or there.
Filming on the Harry Potter show hasn't yet begun, although clearly things are picking up. I wouldn't expect episodes to start airing until 2027, but that's a guess.
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