Angie wrote in the comment thread beneath a ‘Black Severus’ post that, if true, the decision to cast Paapa Essiedu as the Hogwarts Potions Master contradicted a commitment made by the production team to be true to the books:

the director/producer stated at a presentation in December that they were Committed to getting top tier British acting talent that FOLLOWED THE BOOKS CANONICAL DESCRIPTIONS OF THE CHARACTERS. Snape is clearly described in the books as a pale, pallid, sallow skinned man with greasy black hair that went to his shoulders, gauntness, uneven yellow teeth, a prominent hooked nose, and black piercing eyes with an intimidating gaze. 83 times throughout the books was he described in some fashion and this man has NONE of those characteristics.

The relevant passage in the ProductionList.com article to which Angie shared a link is:

At a recent Max 2025 slate presentation, showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director/executive producer Mark Mylod shared key updates. Casting is underway, with an impressive 32,000 young actors auditioning for roles, including the iconic Harry Potter. Mylod emphasized the commitment to finding top-tier British acting talent, following the books’ canonical descriptions of the characters. Casting workshops with a shortlist will begin in January, with roles such as Professor Snape, Lily, and James Potter receiving special attention to ensure accuracy in age and character portrayal. [highlighting added]

Angie — and I assume other serious readers as well — hope that this commitment means the Paapa Essiedu rumor “was just ‘reported’ as a sick joke only to start discourse within the community,” i.e., to gin up interest in the new series of shows based on the books.

I would go with “industry standard marketing maneuver” rather than “sick joke,” but I see Angie’s post (and have come to a similar conclusion about the rumors in recent weeks).

I reviewed some of the casting call materials, though, today and I think Angie is wrong to think that Mark Mylod, whatever his preferences and position may be, was speaking for HBO+ or Bronte Studios in making a commitment to follow “the books canonical descriptions.” The casting calls that have yielded 32,000 sets of audition tapes explicitly opened the doors to actors and actresses wanting to play Harry, Ron, or Hermione who did not look like the characters in the novels or the film adaptations. From Deadline‘s ‘Inside HBO’s Harry Potter Sorting Hat:’

The process to find the Boy Who Lived and his two best friends had been running for months prior to Gardiner’s revelation, following a much-publicized open callout published by the show’s casting director Lucy Bevan, which asked for children aged between nine and 11 as of April 2025 who are residents of the UK and Ireland. The call specified a commitment to “inclusive, diverse casting” and asked that, for each role, agents “submit qualified performers, without regard to ethnicity, sex, disability, race, sexual orientation and gender identity.” The initial round asked candidates to submit two videos, one performing a short story or poem and the second asking them to talk about themselves as well as “a family member, friend or pet that you are particularly close to.”

That “commitment,” of course, contradicts the commitment to conform to “the canonical depiction of characters.” And, forgive me, I have to think the DEI commitment made explicitly before the casting call that yielded the 32,000+ responses has to trump the after-the-fact commitment of the executive producer. The child actor playing Harry Potter, then, could be Asian or Italian, a woman or non-binary, ADHD afflicted or without a leg, red or black, autoromatic, and “transgender,” though the author holds that there are no “trans kids.”

The HBO+ CEO made a soft commitment, too, in recent months to a filming schedule that will begin this summer and to a premiere in February 2027. As I wrote yesterday, I don’t think those commitments are ones to take very seriously — and I’ll say here that anyone who thinks Mylod’s “commitment” to faithfully following the written work with respect to casting characters is writ in stone is setting his or herself up for a real disappointment.

In the same Entertainment Weekly article in which Sir David Waters (Mark Rylance) was rumored to be the Albus Dumbledore of the adaptation of Harry Potter for television, the CEO of HBO+, Casey Bloys, said the teevee series his company and Bronte Studios will be making will not premiere until early in 2027:

During Tuesday’s event, Bloys also predicted a potential early 2027 premiere date for the series. “But don’t hold me to any of that, because we’re just getting started with the writing and casting process,” the exec quickly added.

So, a tentative date of two years from now, the casting mavens have more than 32,000 audition tapes for Harry, Ron, and Hermione wanna-bes “ages 9-11,” with filming scheduled to begin this summer? The casting of the other principal roles is still only fascinating but unsubstantiated rumors — is it silly or prudent at the moment to be assuming that the rumored picks are really just some fan’s best guess or wish upon a Hollywood star? — and all of Hogwarts has yet to be staffed and populated with students, not to mention the Dursleys. Let’s not forget that seven to ten year contract commitments for most have to be negotiated.

It will be something of a miracle for filming to begin by this summer unless September and October are now considered summer due to global warming. This makes the 2027 premiere date make much more sense and Bloys’ hesitance to commit to that date with any certainty.

Your thoughts?

I found this new trailer near the end of another article in the UK press celebrating Rowling’s new ten year contact with MAX television for adaptations of the Hogwarts Saga. The first was The Telegraph‘s ‘The uncancelling of JK Rowling: Tide appears to be turning for the Harry Potter author ostracised for her trans views.’ That 15 April piece was followed yesterday by a Daily Mail article along much the same lines: ‘Cancelled? Thanks to her new £16m Harry Potter TV deal, it’s JK Rowling who’s having the last laugh over trans activists.’

Imagine the conversations at MuggleNet and Leaky Cauldron about what to allow on their Harry Potter fan sites. Each has posted declarations, libelous statements in fact, that Rowling proclaims “harmful and disproven beliefs about what it means to be a transgender person,” i.e., maintaining that biological sex is real, and “commitments” that their sites will not print her image, include links to purchase items from which she might profit, or allow discussion of her post Potter work and “life.” See here and here if you have your doubts about those “commitments.”

For Leaky, which hasn’t posted any Harry Potter news since last October, this wasn’t much of a stretch or sacrifice; the website is largely dormant. For MuggleNet, answerable as they are to their Media Labs owners for generating clicks and traffic, this has been a bit more difficult. [Read more…]