On the back of HBO’s Harry Potter reboot revealing a first look at Nick Frost’s Hagrid and Dominic McLaughlin’s Harry, more casting news has been revealed by an insider report. So far, a fair number of the main cast have been revealed, including the Golden Trio, Professor Dumbledore (John Lithgow), Severus Snape (Paapa Essiedu), Minerva McGonagall (Janet McTeer), and significantly more. Game Of Thrones‘ Anton Lesser joined as Wandmaker Garrick Ollivander as part of the most recent batch of Harry Potter castings and we can expect more of the gaps to be filled now filming has a start date. Surprisingly, a new report suggests a character nobody would have expected to be involved at all in Season 1 has already been cast.
We already knew Luke Thallon is playing Professor Quirinus Quirrell, who is revealed by the end of The Sorcerer’s Stone to be hiding a terrible secret, but he’s apparently not the only villain who will appear. According to a report from Redanian Intelligence, HBO have already cast Lord Voldemort, and, intriguingly, they go on to say the Dark Lord will appear in multiple episodes of Harry Potter Season 1. The intention, apparently, is to keep Voldemort’s actor a secret until the episodes air, which will be a monumental achievement in our times. Here’s what the report says:
“Another piece they mentioned is that Voldemort is already cast and will appear in several episodes, but HBO has no plans of announcing his casting and want to keep him secret until the season airs. Whether or not they’ll succeed, remains to be seen. After all, this will be the most sought-after piece of information about this series.”
The same report says Harry Potter will consist of just 6 episodes per season, and Seasons 1 and 2 will film back to back, with the first season opening on Harry and his fellow Year One students sailing over the water to Hogwarts. Quite why they would have cast the Dursley’s if that is accurate is unclear. The report should, of course, be taken with a grain of salt, though Redanian Intelligence do have a track record for insider knowledge of sorts.
Cillian Murphy emerged as both a fan and bookies favorite to play Voldemort, which feels rather like wishful thinking, given his credentials. But then, Ralph Fiennes was an Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner when he got rid of his nose to play the resurrected Tom Riddle, so stranger things have happened. That said, Fiennes didn’t play Voldemort in the first movie: that brief honor went to Richard Bremmer, who played the face of Voldemort growing out of the back of Ian Hart’s Quirrell head. Having him appear fully formed would, thus, be something of a departure from the books.
There is, of course, a chance that Voldemort will appear in flashback form to reveal the night Harry Potter defied his death curse in Godric’s Hollow. But that would be difficult to stretch across multiple episodes without revealing too much that was consciously held back by the books for later revelations. It’s not impossible, of course, but it feels like a shocking change.
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