Last week the big news in the niche world of Harry Potter fandom and Rowling Studies was the announcement that UK actor Paapa Essiedu has been chosen to play the part of Severus Snape in the Bronte Studios and HBO+ adaptation of the Hogwarts Saga for television. Essiedu is of Ghanian descent, which is to say that he is a black man rather than white, and the subsequent controversy, after the model of ‘Black Hermione’ in Cursed Child, is called ‘Black Severus’ or ‘Black Snape.’
I wrote about the reasons I think this casting choice was casting genius on Thursday, why I thought ‘Black Severus’ differed significantly from the diversity hiring aspect of ‘Black Hermione’ on Friday, and the possibility of a ‘Black Sirius’ (please, let’s not have ‘Black Black’ or ‘Black Squared’) with ‘Black Severus’ to highlight the parallel and inverse lives of those two characters. Comments from HogPro readers came in at 10 to 1 against the casting choice.
What did Rowling say or tweet about this casting choice and controversy? She is the owner of Bronte Studios and an Executive Producer of the adaptation so it is a safe assumption that she had to have been asked to sign off on this decision.
She has said nothing about it, or ‘nothing publicly’ that I know of. The only work-related or Rowling, Inc., themed tweet she has shared has been to say that Hallmarked Man, the eighth Strike-Ellacott novel is still a work in progress:
I’m guessing that the blowback about offering “medical advice” has something to do with Rowling’s common sense position that chemical castration and genital mutilation of children and adolescents is not a good idea, a position she clarified through this re-tweet of a thread on that subject:
The humorous tweet about the effectiveness of co-codamol and whiskey in combination as a pain delivery system for coal miners mystery writers with overdue books was paired with another jab at India Willoughby ( a “jab” in her “lady balls;” Willoughby is a “transgender woman,” which is to say, a biological male).
Three quick notes:
(1) Laugh and Cry: Rowling is tweeting about remarkably disturbing stories in the news, from the lifelong effects of “Gender Affirming Healthcare” to the Iranian laws to make not wearing a hijab, “unveiling” a capitol crime, but interspersing humorous messages to keep from becoming Chicken Little. In addition to those above, she included the picture of a cat in a window seat looking ‘down’ on the citizenry in the streets below. Rowling seems to understand that laughter is the best remedy to despair and the weapon most deeply felt by her ideological enemies.
(2) Hallmarked Man Still a Work in Progress: What more can I say? “Tweaking” sounds like she is in the final corrections of proofs-before-publication and the nine hour push suggests deadline pressure, but we’ve been teased on these counts since her birthday float around Greenland. If the finished manuscript goes to the publisher tomorrow, though, we will not have Strike 8 until midsummer 2025 at the earliest.
(3) ‘Black Severus’? Rowling’s silence on this subject is understandable, predictable really. There is no upside to her joining the discussion; those that hate her as a “murderer” and “TERF” will not care to hear her defense of the Essiedu casting decision and those that despise the DEI quality of deuterocanonical color-casting in Harry Potter adaptations won’t be won over, either. Best she let the marketing mavens at Bronte Studios and HBO+ pilot this intentionally incendiary decision to divide the WOKE fandom and generate buzz about the upcoming teevee shows.
Thank you to our first-time commenters over on the first ‘Black Severus’ thread; welcome to the conversation here!
She can’t pronounce about the casting because it’s just rumours and it hasn’t been confirmed. Even Deadline said the actors was eyed by the production but no offer was made to the actor, and HBO/WB said to different media (Deadline, Variety), they won’t comment on casting rumours and will only speak when the actors are officially announced.
Rowling mentioning this (an ongoing negotiation, if rumours are true), would be crazy.
So I have gone out on a limb based on rumors reported as facts!
Do you wonder if the casting decision makers floated this rumor to test the waters?
That’s one possibility, yes, though I doubt the rumour is not real. I think definitely there were conversations and they are aiming to cast Essiedu or something like him. But Rowling (or anyone from HBO) can’t make any comments on that until it’s official. It doesn’t mean it isn’t real, just that they can’t acknowledge every rumour that floats around!