Lee Jordan, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Angelina Johnson and Dean Thomas were all black in the original. They could flesh out any of those.

There's also so many characters that don't have specific descriptions of their skin color that they could change with minimal impact.

Shape is the most wild. The one character that is consistently described as pale white and greasy. There's really no reason to do this but for the outrage.

If it was just the skin color change, that might be overcome-able, but now you have racially charged undertones introduced to the story. Harry's dad and the marauders bully a black kid? Harry, Ron and Hermione are suspicious of the only black professor?

One argument I can see for using a Black actor for Snape is that Rickman did such an incredible job in the movies, any one cast will be compared and fall short. Your best chance at getting away from the comparison is to go with someone who looks so different, you can't possibly compare.

Lathspell said:

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And one of the key physical insults levied against him in the books is his greasy hair...

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Please please please give new Snape a jheri curl.

Claude! said:

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Lathspell said:

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And one of the key physical insults levied against him in the books is his greasy hair...

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Please please please give new Snape a jheri curl.

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AustinAg2K said:

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One argument I can see for using a Black actor for Snape is that Rickman did such an incredible job in the movies, any one cast will be compared and fall short. Your best chance at getting away from the comparison is to go with someone who looks so different, you can't possibly compare.

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I'm sure that's EXACTLY what they were going for

I just finished Hogwarts:Legacy video game about a week ago and it was extremely well done. They could take that storyline and make a great movie.

Couldn't they just have cast this guy as Sirius Black? it's right there in the name.

I'll bet anyone 50 million sickles that Hermione is either black or a British Indian person.

The first 3 were pretty good.

Next one OK but kind of tough to put on film IMO.

Five and Six were just bad. The lighting was awful in both movies and it just seemed like a bunch of random scenes from the books stuff linked together. The half blood prince was a great book but just terrible execution in the movie.

The last one (both Part 1 and 2 of book 7) was TERRIBLE b/c they screwed up the ending.

TCTTS said:

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Yeah, I've even seen liberal Film Twitter types expressing the same sentiment today. Everyone says he's an amazing actor but the choice could end up really backfiring, in multiple ways.

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If they made him Hagrid and he was picked on by Voldemort and unjustly thrown out of school, yet Dumbledore stood up for him it would be better IMO.

I could almost see ANY character being changed races better than Snape...


Ron could have Morgan Freeman as his grandfather in a picture ( maybe its because I am Irish) before Snape. Heck just make Hermione black

'Harry Potter': Nick Frost Poised To Play Hagrid In HBO Series https://t.co/c8yQe0SIaL

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) March 26, 2025

Well that's great casting

Need Simon Pegg in it now as well

As Arthur Weasley?

I felt this way about ALL of the movies. They seemed to center around certain key events and action sequences but left out everything in-between. If you watched them on their own without reading the books, the pacing and transitions are laughably bad and everything just happens out of convenience.

KidDoc said:

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I just finished Hogwarts:Legacy video game about a week ago and it was extremely well done. They could take that storyline and make a great movie.

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I just started this game. I really like it.

What is the timeline for release on season one? I assume at least a year or two since they haven't even started filming?

HBO continues to say 2026, which is surprising. Will almost assuredly have to be late '26, though. I'm assuming it'll be their big holiday series, which usually run October through December.

Oct/Nov seems perfect for a HP release.

From what I understand, because they're obviously casting kids as the leads, the plan as of now is to actually shoot/release a season every single year for the next however many years (I have no idea ho many books there are). They want to follow the kids as they age in real time, and not have a Stranger Things situation on their hands. So, with that in mind, and with casting underway, I guess it makes sense that they'll be shooting later this year for a 2026 release, and will then be shooting every year from here on out.

TCTTS said:

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(I have no idea ho many books there are).

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TCTTS said:

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'Harry Potter': Nick Frost Poised To Play Hagrid In HBO Series https://t.co/c8yQe0SIaL

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) March 26, 2025

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I actually think that is about as perfect as it gets.

I almost wish Jude Law was just dressed up as an old dumbledore. I think he was the one bright spot on the meh prequel stuff.

Agree

Jude Law as a Young Dumbledore is one of the best things across ALL the movies.

https://instagr.am/p/DItyOvLRhZo

TCTTS said:

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'Harry Potter': Nick Frost Poised To Play Hagrid In HBO Series https://t.co/c8yQe0SIaL

— Deadline (@DEADLINE) March 26, 2025

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We really need to get Simon Pegg in as Arthur Weasley

They cast the kids.

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/harry-potter-hbo-series-casts-harry-ron-hermione-1236410755/

Is this the part where I need to hide from the internet as racists come out in force from them casting a racially ambiguous Hermione in a work of fiction

I just love that any character can be any race, but by god those Weasleys HAVE to have the red hair.

Honestly Hermione should be the most flexible because if they mess with the red hair or Harry they would be effed

Hermione having some tan skin is very different from casting a black man as Severus Snape.

The constant appeal to "it's just fiction" is the most ridiculous argument on TexAgs when discussing whatever IP. There is nothing wrong with people wanting casting to reflect character descriptions from our favorite stories. Honestly, there are other characters I wouldn't care about being raceswapped.

But is Cho Chang going to be Indian or black? How about we recast Dean Thomas and Angelina Jordan as Asians or something? I would say doing any of that is simple pandering and is not sending a message to the fans that the showrunners care enough about the source material.

ETA: Also, i'm one of the few who hate that Daniel Radcliffe was too much of a pansy to wear the Green contacts. Harry's eyes are green. For a series where Harry's eyes are such an important detail, I would expect them to be more of a defining feature. His eyes should be some special shade of green that specifically resemble Lily's eyes.

I'm ok with Snape being black as long as every time someone mentions "The Dark Arts" around him, he gets super offended and starts dropping the F*bomb on people.

Hey, all we gingers have are the Weasleys. Disney took MJ away from in the recent spiderman films.

Madmarttigan said:

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Is this the part where I need to hide from the internet as racists come out in force from them casting a racially ambiguous Hermione in a work of fiction

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Best comment I saw - I picture a board room full of Warner Bros executives debating the exact hex code of brown Hermione should be to not upset people while still being technically diverse

I mean, for God's sake, Hermione is called a mudblood by the Slytherin kids. The whole non-pureblood wizard thing is like 90% of the storyline around her character. So I'm kinda curious now to see if anyone is actually dense enough to complain that the actress isn't white enough.