The other day, HBO revealed the young actors who will be playing the roles of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger in its upcoming Harry Potter show: they are, respectively, Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton.
All three are child actors, so they don't have long lists of credits to their names. But they do have some. Let's take a closer look at these three performers.
Who is Dominic McLaughlin?
Of the three, McLaughlin has the most acting experience. He's appeared in a stage production of Macbeth alongside Game of Thrones veteran Indira Varma and Ralph Fiennes, who played Voldemort in the Harry Potter movie series. Serendipitous, no?
McLaughlin has also done a bit of screen work, although nothing he's made has come out yet. He's starring in the comedy movie Grow, about a pumpkin-growing contest, alongside Nick Frost, who happens to play Hagrid in the new Harry Potter show, yet another connection. He's also been cast in a TV adaptation of the Gifted book series by Marilyn Kaye, about teenagers who discover they have superpowers.
Both of those projects are due out later this year. I don't expect McLaughlin to have huge roles in either.
Who is Arabella Stanton?
Arabella Stanton hasn't done much onscreen, but she has some notable theater credits. She played the narrator control in a production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s playStarlight Express, where all the cast members act on roller skates (look it up sometime, it's wild).
Stanton's biggest credit is playing the title role in a production of Matilda the Musical on the West End in London in 2023 and 2024.
Who is Alastair Stout?
Stout is more or less a complete unknown, without any credits to speak of to his name. This is unsurprising; these are kids, so of course not all of them have done much acting.
The one exception may be this potato commercial, which the folks on the Harry Potter Reddit say he's in. Honestly, it took me a few watches to spot him — he's only there for a second — but I think that's him at the end at the table, about to enjoy a bowl of potatoes:
The Harry Potter show is due to start filming this summer. It will likely be out on HBO and HBO Max sometime in 2027. In the meantime, we'll probably hear about more casting announcements soon. Some of the important adult roles have already been filled:
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h/t The Scotsman