HARRY POTTER TV Show Casts Professors Dumbledore, Snape, Quirrell, And More; Hagrid And Filch Also Announced

@Lisa89 -
The casting is actively racist and disrespectful in an adaptation sold as being 'faithful'

@Scarilian - Because John Lithgow is American? 😏

@TheFinestSmack - Mason Gamble for Dumbledore? I don't know. He's only 39.

@Lisa89 -
Snape is defined by his looks as a parallel to Harry Potter, the idea that he's what Harry could have became if he had let the Dursleys abuse of him impact him. This adaptation was stated by those involved to be getting made entirely for a 'faithful adaptation' being as close to the books as possible.

• In the source material Harry Potter dislikes Snape instantly, this now has racial connotations.
• In the source material James Potter singles out Snape because of how he looks, this now has racial connotations.

By changing the race/visuals of the character you change the context of the story and if the source material is irrelevant to this then you devalue the project's entire stated goal.

At its core: John Lithgow still fits the visuals of Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape does not.

@Scarilian - So, in your assessment, the book makes clear that Harry dislikes Snape because he is white? That's fascinating.

@Scarilian - Harry is going to be black, or mixed race. Fairly clear that’s the approach they’ll be taking with this.

Which brings up a whole separate issue…They’re going to show a black / mixed race child being locked in a closet and treated as what is tantamount a slave by his “family”?

@TheFinestSmack - John Lithgow somewhere 😳

@Scarilian - Did you know you can judge someone on their appearance and dislike them, all without race being a factor? Like I take one look at Kevin Hart and I know his comedy is not for me. He just looks like a goofy comedian. But I love Dave Chappelle... so where's the racism?

Heaven forbid a clueless child make a snap judgement about someone and then learn to evolve their opinion. Who wants to see a story about character growth anyway.

Also, according to JK "Transphobia" Rowling, Harry's friend Hermione is canonically black. So I think maybe with context clues people can figure out that he doesn't hate Snape because he's racist.

@Scarilian - JK Rowling was making up stuff as she went I doubt she was thinking that deep about Snapes appearance being important, and even then this show is something she has control over so as the original creator of the story she doesnt feel it changes her story

from a story perspective Snape is meant to look different and imposing ( they can cast other black good guy roles to counteract this, its way too early to tell )
something that will be down to acting,
this is an adaptation its implied James hates Snape because he is Lilys friend , Snape antagonizes Garry too
there are lots of ways those dynamics can be recreated without referring to race


Race also isnt seen as important in those books either I doubt Snape being black will change anything about his story at all either
race in the books exists within the confines of wizards and muggles

@twistedcastles -
"I doubt Snape will be the only prominent character cast as black"

Who else could they race swap and then shove into a prominent position? The only other one I could maybe think is Neville - but they treat him badly in this book also.

Other than Lupin, who I expect they'll race swap IF they get to Season 3, there's nobody left to race swap who Harry has a positive interaction with.

You can't even bring forward characters from future books because he doesn't have anyone who has a large enough role later when the story gets more complicated.

So they are now stuck, sure they can have a diverse selection of random Gryffindors, but they'd have to create a new character for HBO specifically to be the 'black friend' stereotype for Harry.

"book one is very short its likely new material will be added to the series for a 8 episode season with hour long episodes"

It's 17 chapters long, likely 3 chapters for episode one followed by 2 chapters each for the remaining episodes. 2 chapters an episode may seem like a lot, but you'd have to build up the structure in each episode as they'd need to work as individual episodes.

@Scarilian - So essentially, what you're saying is, the one character that is misjudged more than any other, being taken for evil when all the while he was actually the most loyal and caring is being played by a black man. And you think that's a problem. Seems right on the hook nose to me!

@TheFinestSmack - Did you complain when American actor Robert Downey Jr played Dr Dolittle?
Did you complain when British actor Aaron Pierre was cast as American John Stewart?
Did you complain when American actor David Harbour played Russian Red Guardian?

No. So put a sock in it.

@SolarSoldier - I did complain when RDJ was cast as Dolittle. I don't know who American John Stewart is and I never saw anything Red Guardian was in. You can choke on the other sock.

@UncleHarm1 -
"Or should all mainstream movies be just white people because it's "respectful to the source material"?"

The notion that all mainstream movies would be white if they were respectful to the source material is frankly absolutely idiotic. Stories generally have a variety woven into them based on their setting.

Harry Potter is set in 1991-1998, its a snapshot of England at a time period chosen for the whole focus on letters as primary communication, requiring Hedwig, in order to function. In 1991, 94.65% were white - even so, Harry Potter includes a higher level of diversity than the time period would reflect.

By Book 4 you have entire schools of different groups visiting and by Book 5 they are interacting with the Wizarding World's version of the United Nations while being supported by an underground group comprised of a selection of witches and wizards from different backgrounds.

"It's there a right way to do it?"

You take the existing characters that make logical sense to have had interactions that would be important to the story and you expand on them. Here is an example for four black characters that Harry Potter already has written into its source material: Kinglsey Shacklebolt, Blaise Zabini, Angelina Johnson and Dean Thomas.

• Kingsley Shacklebolt could be a way for us to see the state of the Wizarding world and its reaction to big events, it allows us to build-up the Ministry Of Magic and we can eventually see his motivation to become a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Kingsley would be our method of seeing the changing nature of the magical and muggle world in the face of different events throughout the series.

• Blaise is known to have interacted with Malfoy for several years that is never explored in the books and can be given additional screentime as he is part of Slitherin, a way of us getting to see a different side of Malfoy when he's not supported by his lackeys Crabbe and Goyle.

• Angelina Johnson is an older student and a member of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. As Harry eventually develops an interest in Quidditch you could easily have her as something that inspires his interest in the game, seeing her play. Meanwhile the character goes from playing for Gryffindor Quidditch team to becoming the Captain of the Quidditch team to being a member of Dumbledore's Army. She even ends up marrying George Weasley so you could flesh out the other Weasleys if desired.

• Dean Thomas joins Hogwarts at the same time as our main trio and could easily be someone who they have interactions with, in the second season he is dating Ginny so you have potential to explore his dynamic change with the trio. He became a chaser for the Quidditch team so you can include him interacting with Harry discussing Quidditch and he becomes a member of Dumbledore's army. He's also captured at one stage and brought to Malfoy Manor, so you can have him included in the Malfoy Manor plotline when you do get to adapt later storylines.

Most stories should focus on incorporating and developing the characters they have as these four as an example have already shown potential for being further developed or showing us different segments of Hogwarts and the Wizarding world.

You can also introduce new characters, develop that character, let audience get attached to that character naturally and incorporate them into the story in a logical and satisfying way. It's not difficult, its just writers are lazy and want to virtue signal without effort by race/sex swapping as opposed to writing the characters they have.

"sounds like trolling when I say it but I'm serious lol and I mean it as respectfully as possible."

I'm here vouching for better representation with the characters who already are diverse and them to be true to what they promised, which was being a faithful adaptation, rather than just race/sex swapping a character. The fact you think that means someone is racist is deeply concerning for the state of discussion.

Those involved fully understand that they promised a faithful adaptation and that means delivering on what was written in the books to the best of their abilities. Choices such as race/sex swapping occur entirely because of outside factors, their own political/social views or the decision to vary themselves from previous adaptations.

They know that it will annoy fans when you promise a faithful adaptation and then disregard the source material. They do so anyway because they care about nothing other than using the brand for their political/social virtue signalling and to get a paycheck. They race/sex swap solely for that short term online buzz.

That's not helping anyone, it's poor representation and if anything it creates more frustrations. Characters are defined by every attribute of them and that includes how they look. They have plenty of diverse characters in the source material, yet made the choice to race swap Snape anyway because they wanted to disregard the source material, virtue signal and differentiate it from the previous adaptation - despite it running counter to their promise of a faithful adaptation.

If the Snape casting was faithful then the only discussion here would be about how old John Lithgow is and perhaps people debating as to whether to give the show a watch. Instead they intentionally did something that shows they are not adapting the source material faithfully, which was the main appeal, so now people are less interested and this is the type of discussion being had.

@Scarilian - This is the biggest piece of BS I have seen in a while.

@Scarilian - There were no werewolves or dragons in 90's England either. You already know it's not going to be entirely faithful, they're going to add filler and change things. And if "the main selling point for watching the show is gone" because you have to look at a black guy then you have bigger issues. JK Rowling-style issues.

@OptimusCrime - Both great watches the show will be hard to beat the movies. Too bad The Chronicles of Narnia never reached that popularity.

@OptimusCrime - ummm somewhat… prisoner of Azkaban use to be my favorite of the series but my last watch of it, it was kind of rough for whatever reason. Chamber of secrets rocks though. I grew to appreciate the last two a lot more in my adult hood than I did as a young adult

@OptimusCrime - The wife and I do the same. We don't always make it every year ;-)

She being the HP fan, and I LOTR :-)