Gary Oldman played Harry's godfather Sirius Black in the Harry Potter movies. However, the actor doesn't seem done with the Wizarding World just yet. With HBO making a Harry Potter TV adaptation with a 10-year commitment to completing the series, Oldman has expressed interest in getting involved.
The announcement of a Harry Potter TV show earlier this year received a mixed reception. There's already eight fantastic movies, right? On the other hand, a TV show allows for a much more thorough adaptation of the books. The writers are not held back by the limited duration of a movie. Several former cast members have voiced their support of the upcoming series, from Daniel Radcliffe (Harry) to Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley).
Now, Gary Oldman has revealed that he's totally down to jump back into the Wizarding World. While it's hard to imagine anyone else playing Sirius, Oldman isn't expecting a call to reprise his old role. However, he's got his eyes locked on becoming none other than Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. “I would bet my money that they will get a whole new cast of people,” he told IndieWire. “Maybe in a few years, I could do Dumbledore.”
Oldman went on to mention that “no one’s approached me" about the role, but admits he thinks there's still plenty of room to explore the character. “I love Sirius. He wasn’t in it enough. He turned up and then he went through the veil.”
I could see Gary Oldman as Dumbledore. Hopefully the casting team agrees. HBO is currently going through the tough process of casting the key trio Harry, Ron and Hermione.
James McAvoy "nearly" played Tom Riddle in the Harry Potter movies
Speaking of Harry Potter, James McAvoy recently revealed that back in the day he was offered a "ton of money" to portray the franchise's most iconic villain, Tom Riddle, who goes on to become Lord Voldemort.
During an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, McAvoy explained why he ultimately turned down the opportunity, “I remember it was right at the beginning of my career,” he said. “I auditioned for it and I think they wanted to put me on a retainer. I’d hardly done any work and me and I think 10 other actors, they wanted to put us in a retainer so that they could hold us and keep us to choose later.”
"They offered quite a lot of money. For me at that time, it was a ton of money. It was like £40,000 or something like that. I’d done very little work and I wouldn’t be able to do any work for about seven months, I think."
Given how early this came in McAvoy's career, it was a risky move to turn it down, but he still went on to become the huge actor he is today, landing roles in everything from Narnia to X-Men.
HBO CEO expects the Harry Potter show to air in "late ’26-’27"
On top of all this, HBO CEO Casey Bloys talked to Deadline about a potential release date for the series. "Writers are just getting started so it’s too soon to talk about airdate," he said. Even so, he predicted that the series will debut in "late '26-'27."
So the Harry Potter show is still a couple years off, which makes sense; they have a lot of work ahead of them. "With Francesca and I feel very, very happy and excited about what they’ve got going," Bloys said.
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