Harry Potter TV Series (6 Viewers)

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This morning, HBO announced four of the series regulars on its upcoming “Harry Potter” TVseries adaptation, comprising most of the adult cast for the first season. Those roles are recent Olivier Award-winning actor John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Oscar-nominee Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, “I May Destroy You” star Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, and “Cornetto Trilogy” favorite Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid.

In addition, recent “Hamlet” performer Luke Thallon will guest star as Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Quirinus Quirrell, while five-time BAFTA-winner Paul Whitehouse will recur on the series as Hogwarts caretaker Argus Filch.

In a joint statement shared with IndieWire, showrunner and executive producer Francesca Gardiner as well as director and executive producer Mark Mylod said, “We’re delighted to have such extraordinary talent onboard, and we can’t wait to see them bring these beloved characters to new life.”………..

‘Harry Potter’ HBO Series Officially Sorts Out Its Adult Cast Members

Led by John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu, and Nick Frost, HBO's 'Harry Potter' series has found its adult cast members.

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After months of speculation, HBO has announced part of the cast of the latest round of Harry Potter IP-mining: the new TV adaptation of the original books will feature John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Nick Frost as Hagrid – and Paapa Essiedu as Snape.

As the Mail and Telegraph’s headlines were quick to inform their readers, yes, this means a “Black actor” in that iconic role.

There is a real concern that Essiedu is drinking from a poisoned chalice – that he will be associated with an author who is at the forefrontof a gender-critical movement that has succeeded in redefining the rights of trans people to their detriment; that he will have to weather the racist storm of Potterheads enraged at the diversion from “book accuracy” (Snape is described as having “sallow skin”); and deal with opportunists looking to illustrate their next rant about how the world has succumbed to “woke orthodoxy”. All of this in a show that is slated to last a decade.

I’m sceptical about colour-blind casting, especially when it’s presented as a magic bullet for diversity concerns in the arts – but I can’t help but enjoy the audacity of Black Snape.

If any performances from the original films were going to be rethought considerably – considering that casting so far is relatively aligned in appearance, bar a more handsome Quirrell – Snape is the most obvious choice.

Alan Rickman’s depiction was so singular that any actor who hewed closely to it would likely be written off as doing a pastiche. He is also arguably the most complex and tragic figure in the series, inviting the most interpretation. So why not play around with it a bit?

Many detractors are insistent that they would’ve been OK with, say, a Black Dumbledore or a Black Professor McGonagall, but that the details of Snape’s arc within the series are made invariably more touchy and loaded if the character is Black.

Harry and his friends’ suspicion of their potions professor is down to sensing a menacing, scheming intent behind his cold disposition. Cue the imagined new Snape going: Is it cause I’m Black?

Harry’s dad, James, and his friends bullied Snape at school in the 1970s, making him levitate and then hanging him upside down. If unchanged in the new series (this somewhat depends on the casting of James’s friends) this could now look like an image of racist bullying.

Perhaps that would make James Potter irredeemable, particularly considering the real experiences of Black people in boarding schools – or it could simply deepen the series’ depiction of vulnerability and torment………..

A ‘Black Snape’ in the new Harry Potter seems designed to cause controversy – but it could work | Jason Okundaye

Ignore the fuss: Paapa Essiedu is a brilliant actor who can bring his own depth and style to enrich the iconic character, says Jason Okundaye, an assistant newsletter editor and writer at the Guardian

www.theguardian.com

 

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