Paapa Essiedu has been cast, according to several reports (see here and here) to play Severus Snape in the Bronte Studio adaptation of the HarryPotter novels for HBO+ television. The accomplished Shakespearean actor has played some of the most demanding roles in theatre repertoire to critical acclaim and successfully worked in films and television as well.
But there’s a hitch in this casting decision. Essiedu is black. Unlike the casting of a black actress to play Hermione Granger, which was defended as being canonical because the character was not described explicitly as being white [correction in comments!], Severus Snape is famously “sallow skinned,” a yellowish, unhealthy condition almost exclusively of Caucasians.
I woke up to this announcement as a virtual parliament of owls with messages from Potter Pundits flew through my chimney grate bemoaning the casting choice. “Another ‘Black Hermione’,” “The series is doomed,” “Every character that hates Snape will seem like a racist,” “What are they thinking? Isn’t Rowling being a transphobe bad enough — does she have to make the sadist Death Eater a black man, too?” etc.
I get all that (except for the ‘Rowling is a transphobe’ bit) and I’m not a fan of color-casting as a rule, especially when it is obviously more than just a little bit about generating clicks and fandom interest in the new shows.
But —
If Black Severus proves to be a reality — and I have to think it will — then it is not a poorly thought through choice, it won’t necessarily make the heroes into racists for hating Snape, and it solves several problems the Bronte Studios rebooters face. It’s also much more in the traditions of American filmmaking than, say, Black Hermione was, which Cursed Child casting was pure tokenism and click-bait.
The Rebooted Harry Potter adaptation for television has quite the uphill battle to win the hearts of global fandom. Three obstacles that come immediately to mind are
- the continued popularity of the Warner Brothers big screen adaptations (everyone in the world except JKR now ‘sees’ the characters as the movie stars who played them),
- the need to do something different from canon and prior adaptations that will not require re-writing the stories (there has to be a reason to watch the new shows, something that makes them ‘new’ in a way that isn’t just currency), and
- the Everest the marketing team must summit, the Trans War association of the Author with ‘Far Right’ or ‘Anti-Progressive’ ideas, stigmata really.
‘Black Severus’ lifts the teevee adaptations over all these hurdles that have to be cleared for the show to excite fans around the world.
First, there’s the Rickman legacy. The actor who played Severus in the first films was much beloved and is now dead, which is to say, bereaved and sacrosanct, above criticism and irreplaceable. This is true for all the characters whose screen versions were played by people now departed, I think immediately of McGonagall and Hagrid, but especially for the Potions Master because of the anti-hero role he plays in the series. Minerva and Rubeus were always good guys; Severus was until the very end a great mystery.
How can any actor win the hearts and sympathy of fandom with the legacy of Alan Rickman hanging over him? Cf., fandom feelings for Michael Gambon who replaced Richard Harris, which caused many to cheer at his death in the Half-Blood Prince film finale.
The solution to the Rickman Hurdle, beyond choosing an actor with the chops and credentials that Essiedu has, is to make HBO+ Severus a ‘Magical Negro,,’ a real commonplace in American fiction and movie history.
In a single stroke of color-casting, the new Snape becomes an outcast whom the viewing audience will see as both unfairly oppressed and worthy of their sympathies, however odious his behaviors. Those behaviors become somehow understandable rather than just psychopathic sadism. The actor cannot be compared to Rickman (well, he will be, of course, but he cannot be hated qua usurper as he would otherwise be), the played race-card gives the series a signature new dynamic because of the whiff of racism any dislike of the character generates, and it is such a PC move, again of tokenism, one though that will win Woke hearts. It will rally the progressive fan base to his defense as Black Hermione did in the Cursed Child stage play, which to a degree deflates the ‘Rowling as Transphobe Bigot’ bugaboo balloon.
Rather than being another reason to think the Bronte/HBO+ adaptation will fail, Black Severus is the first sign I’ve seen that the producers and director understand the uphill fight they’re in. Black Severus, frankly, much as I’d prefer a straight forward adaptation of the books without considerations of marketing and previous versions, is casting genius for reasons beyond the acting ability and experience that Essiedu will bring to the most nuanced and complicated character in the Hogwarts Saga.
For one thing, Rowling’s most fervent critics, the Potter fandom elite, are wrong-footed by this choice. If they decry the casting decision as tokenism or not true to canon or even as the shameless attempt to distract us from Rowling’s horrific crimes against cross-dressing men, they immediately become subject to criticism as canon-purists, even racists. If they embrace the casting decision — “Hurrah, diversity!” — then they involuntarily mute or diminish their depiction of Rowling as a troglodyte Nazi.
In summary, then:
- Black Severus, by defanging Rowling’s critics (or at least giving fans reason to think of her once again as a PC Queen) clears the major marketing hurdle for this adaptation.
- Black Severus, as noted, clears the Rickman Effect obstacle; the Bronte Studio version transforms the character so significantly that fond memories and comparisons are eclipsed and Essiedu no doubt will bring out more of the Snape mystery than the pedestrian Warner Brothers films allowed.
- Black Severus, too, generates a huge Buzz and twixter discussion point for fans of the books and Warner Brothers films. Screen Media addicts will be impatient to see this new Snape and especially those scenes where Harry and James come off as segregationists or worse. Imagine the irony, too, of Black Severus embracing the Dark Lord and the separatist ideology of the Death Eaters. Black Severus calling Lily Evans a “Mudblood” will be delicious, frankly, for the defamiliarization involved.
So, three cheers for the decision to cast Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape. The series reboot gets a world-class actor playing a key and very difficult role and Black Severus helps the marketing folks generate interest in and minimize resistance to Rowling’s revival of her most famous work. Hats off to Team Rowling for this choice!
Snape is not black. Period.
It’s 2025, only thing black snape will do is ensure i never touch HP again same as Star Wars after Kennedy debacle. Guess the live action Cannon ended at the OG’s.
Snape isn’t a black man. This forced diversity pick is ruining everything.
More erasing of Europeans. I will not be watching and I will be unsubscribing from HBO. I’m not supporting this anymore, I’m not looking the other way. This is what real systemic racism and oppression looks like.
Yeah this is some wild stuff. If they were so worried about JKR’s rough associations they never should have started the project. Everyone that I know that was interested in a HP show was interested for one reason: the ability to perfectly follow the books, given a healthy amount of time. Of course, no one had any hope that this wouldn’t be yet another 2020s disaster.
It’s pretty tiring. You’ve got Padma, dean, Blaise, Cho, shacklebolt, you’ve already got a significant amount of diversity in there w/o swapping things around. 1980’s and 90’s? Looks absolutely nothing like the 2020s. And especially not in a world dominated by racists and blood purists. Wild wild stuff. Probably trying to get their funding. You know how it goes. And can’t forget, there’s no qualifying for awards without diversity.
Opens ChatGPT -> Give me a blog script justifying black snape casting -> publish.
John, you need to amend your article. Chapter 21 of The Prisoner of Azkaban describes a white Hermione:
“One moment, please, Macnair,’ came Dumbledore’s voice. ‘You need to sign, too.’ The footsteps stopped. Harry heaved on the rope. Buckbeak snapped his beak and walked a little faster.
Hermione’s white face was sticking out from behind a tree. ‘Harry, hurry!’ she mouthed
I added a link to your correction above, Zack– thank you for the citation!
Surprised at the narrow-minded comments here.
I’m with John. I think a black Snape works.
Stories carry lots of meaning and are open to interpretation and reinterpretation. Adaptations which make changes from the canon can do so for all sorts of reasons, to produce various effects to varying degrees of success. Some are more justified and commendable than others.
Casting Snape as black has some intriguing implications. It certainty makes more sense than any of the wizarding aristocracy being black. A black Malfoy, Lestrange or, er… Black, would be a more jarring decision that would require a bit more narrative gymnastics. But Snape, coming from poverty, being the unpopular kid at school and being an outsider amongst the ruling elite, has a number of traits that align with some sort of minority background. Could we even imagine a racial dimension to James’s bullying of him?!
John.. with all due respect.. you are a pleb for saying this.
them casting a black man is ridiculous
honestly. ppl that cheer this type of mess on are what’s wrong with today’s society. I’m all for diversity but this woke nonsense is ridiculous… I’m so tired of seeing white characters get race swapped … it’s pandering to very few and insulting… most black ppl I know think it’s equally ridiculous and flat out absurd.
snape isn’t black… he’s just not… replacing him just for sake of diversifing the cast is nonsense
Thanks, Ed!
I wonder if you’re not on to something with your joking aside about the possibility of a black Sirius Black.
That would be a lot of fun, frankly, especially with all the “pure blood” qualities of his family history, his jump to Gryffindor, and the conflict with Black Severus, who would be making the opposite jump by becoming Slytherin and a Death Eater.
If the race card is going to be played in casting (and for reasons explained in my post that seems inevitable to this production), at least, as you say, make it something that makes the new interpretation invite a greater understanding of the original. If Sirius and Severus are the only black actors in the production, their opposite choices and journeys, both aligned in the end with the Potters and their surviving son Harry, would be highlighted in a way that it has not been thus far.
As I noted, the best of all possible worlds would be a Bronte Studios production for the small screen that was faithful to the original work and shared much more of that work than the ninety minute more or less length of a single film allowed. The money invested, the Trans War hangover objections to Rowling, and the Black Hermione precedent means that this isn’t going to happen. For all the purists who hate the PC tokenism involved, though, believe me, I’m right with you.
Where we differ, it seems, is that I am willing to embrace the possibilities inherent in this necessary conformity with the Zeitgeist and compromise with fidelity to the text. Let the “non-white” casting be challenging, engaging, even defamiliarizing if we have to have this color coding. Black Severus and Black Sirius Black would check all those boxes.
Dear John! I am Hungarian. I love the Hungarian rockopera: Stephen, the king. You can hear it on St. Stephen’s day, every Augustus 20. But nobody can out-sing the original antagonist of St. Stephen. Nobody can sing it better than Gyula Vikidal. I say nobody will be better Severus Snape than Alan Rickman. I feel sorry for every future actor, who will play this character. And I love Your books Mr. Granger. I am still reading them, who knows how many times. Éva
What utter BS! Snape is white and is described as a white person. They need to stop swapping races for “diversity” sake.
There were black people in the original Harry Potter why do they have to ruin everything for “diversity” it’s a joke same as having a black Hermione ruins my childhood tbh same as making dumbledore gay there’s just no need for it. I think JK has been pressured into this just because people are saying she’s racist or homophobic, It’s pathetic at this point ruining the original Harry Potter films. Stop changing the race and identity of the original characters!!!! Hogwarts is set in 90s UK where most students would have been white, there were black characters but snape is not one of them!
I wonder how they’ll manage to recreate the scenes of James Potter and his friends bullying Snape without it seeming racist.
woke idiocracy… everything is upsidedown. No matter how long you try to sugar coated, or “technically” explain it, it’s plain idiocy, and it makes no sence, justvlike a black Ariel. What comes next? A chinese trans Harry Potter that is also pregnant, but believes he’s a cat? All this “agenda” of pushing this insanity is deliberate and well planned to screw up the minds of younger generations in accepting these mental issues as the new normality in this “brave new world”, but in reality everything normal is going doen the drain, and we are left with a society composed out of a new generation of brain washed idiots, with the minds of which the ones pushing this agenda from behind the stage are playing like with putty in their hands.
Ummmm hermione was mentioned white multiple times. Her rosy red cheeks are mentioned when she’s cold. She often blushes. There’s even a passage that “hermiones whit face looked through the bush” her bright red sunburn and when she got a black eye she resembled a panda
The series has a black actor for Snape. it’s been cast and done so no amount of argument or Complaints will stop it. I myself think it’s a bad decision. It’s disrespectful to Alan Rickman who put his heart and soul in the role and passed away quite quickly after the show ended. It’s all very sad 😭 and totally breaks my heart.
Thank you for the feedback, but it may be early still for heartbreak if Black Snape means that to you.
I could find no confirmation this morning that Paapa Essiedu had been cast in the role. It remains simply click-bait speculation to gin up interest in the series until Essiedu and HBO+ confirm he will be playing the part.
If you have a link for your assertion that this is a done deal, please share it!
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.
this will not work seeing as they also promised us to be a faithful adaptation and rowling said they were committed to preserving the integrity of her books. I highly think this was just “reported” as a sick joke only to start discourse within the community and it’s not funny.
fans are being called racist for just wanting what was promised to us. yes I know there are fans that ARE racist just to be racist, but alot of us just are wanting the studio to uphold their promises. we have known what Snape has looked like for 26 years.
rowling also drew him herself while writing the manuscripts for the first book and the inspiration for Snape was her chemistry teacher John nettleship, who looks like what do you know, the book descriptions of snape. this man doesn’t even look like that man either.
deadline stated that no formal offer has been made to the actor nor has his team conversed with HBO suits about a potential deal. let’s hope that this just remains a horrible rumor.
https://productionlist.com/harry-potter-tv-series-to-begin-filming/
Thank you for this thoughtful response and for the link. Here is the relevant passage from that article:
John that means that that they are finding actors that go by the descriptions of the characters from the books. so this casting rumor is pretty much false considering he’s described as a white man in the books 22 times. thst means rowling wants you to envision that…a pale white British dude. this is a rumor and isn’t true especially if mylod stated that.
That certainly makes sense — and I have written more than once about my chagrin with respect to being played by what is only a rumor.
Which is to say, I agree with your point; there is no reason to become angry or excited about this casting decision until an actual announcement is made.
I will repeat here what I wrote about the legendary stage performer rumored to be in negotiations to play Dumbledore; it is unlikely that a stage specialist and virtuoso would trade in the ten most productive years of his life for a television adaptation of a series of novels.
Written like a man who would appreciate a Chinese depiction of Shaft or a Danish Malcolm X.
Quite frankly, you’re an idiot; nobody wants a black Snape, not even black fans of HP. It’s pathetically pointless pandering that only exists to drum up something to talk about instead of actually putting effort into writing meaningful characters. Add to that Rowling’s casual racism in character writing – do you REALLY think this even has a chance of going somewhere good?
Oh wait, you harped on about trans people 7 or 8 times and even called them “cross-dressing men” as if trans men don’t also exist… in a rant about racial casting. Yeah, no, I’m gonna have to call out that blatant bullshit for what it is. Pathetic.
Courageous act there, Akai! Speaking out for “transgenderism,” the ‘fundamentalist’ and voodoo science of Gender Theory extremists, without sharing your name or a real email address.
In only a few paragraphs, you have revealed yourself as not only clueless but a coward.
I have StoodWithJKRowling since 2019, though the author and I came to the conclusions we have from radically different positions, which differences I have detailed multiple times over that same period.
Because of my refusing to stand behind a pseudonym as you have, I have been effectively cancelled from speaking at any Harry Potter fan or academic conferences, I have been unable to get call-backs from universities with English department openings despite my PhD and authority in Rowling Studies, and, other than invitations to contribute to volumes put together by fearless anthology editors (made by them in full knowledge of my pariah status and as often as not despite their strong disagreement with me on this subject), no book contracts have been offered because Rowling remains radioactive in the radically insular world of Main Stream Publishing Houses.
You see? You and your ilk have already won your battle to isolate and defame me.
Your choice to shoot vulgarities at me as in this comment today, with no evidence or argument concerning how I am wrong (when Rowling’s positions of biology based science are rapidly becoming the consensus of biologists and American politicians), speak to your bigamous marriage with the Siamese Twins of Ignorance and Arrogance.
(I’d make an argument above name-calling here, though mine, unlike yours is actually true, because you made no arguments to engage with in your comment.)
My arguments above about why ‘Black Severus’ is a legitimate even an understandable choice for the producers stand up. You haven’t presented a single idea against my position besides arguments from analogy, one of the two three weakest arguments possible, a form in essence of simple sophistry and name-calling.
I have posted your rant tonight, because it’s time for HogwartsProfessor readers to see the verbal abuse and the de facto blacklisting I have experienced since December 2019.
I trust our sober and thoughtful readers will grasp who is right and who is wrong on the subjects of ‘Black Severus,’ an idea I have acknowledged as probably mistaken when I have been corrected from my original thinking that this was a real possibility (it seems to be only a click bait rumor to gin up interest in the teevee series) and of “transgenderism” and it’s Orwellian mantras, TMAM and TWAW.
You know that, of course, if you read the comment thread above before posting your risible rant.
My turn!
Thanks for providing this opportunity to call you out as a coward and gender conformist — and to call out all others whose comments dripping with silliness and slander I have not approved for six plus years. News break, folks! To call me a “transphobe,” a “bigot,” and someone who should be cancelled reflects only your childish opinions in accordance with the online TRA mob now in almost full retreat from the public square.
The news? That remarkably effective attack on my livelihood as a public intellectual happened a long time ago.
And my faith and family have survived that cancellation with our dignity and dedication to pursuing truth intact. I hope someday you have an AHA moment about your TRA ideology reflexive positions and that you will feel sufficient remorse to share your apologies with all those you have tried to bury or just to frighten away from speaking the truth. I will not, o0f course, be holding my breath for your apology or for Potter fandom leaders to admit what their black-balling me in private (at least what they thought was private!) has done to the Grangers.