‘Harry Potter’ TV series officially confirms first six cast members

HBO‘s upcoming Harry Potter TV series has confirmed its first six cast members.

The new version of the hit fantasy series, which will adapt the seven books over a mammoth 10-year period, had previously only announced John Lithgow in the role of Albus Dumbledore.

The broadcaster has now officially confirmed his casting alongside heavily rumoured stars Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid.

Additionally, it has been revealed that Luke Thallon will play Professor Quirinus Quirrell, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, while Paul Whitehouse has been cast as caretaker Argus Filch.

“We’re delighted to have such extraordinary talent onboard, and we can’t wait to see them bring these beloved characters to new life,” said showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod.

The roles were previously played by Richard Harris and Michael Gambon (Dumbledore), Maggie Smith (McGonagall), Alan Rickman (Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Ian Hart (Quirrell) and David Bradley (Filch) in the film series.

Casting for the three lead roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley are yet to be confirmed, though Gardiner previously revealed that over 32,000 children had auditioned.

Lithgow recently admitted that he didn’t think his role will be a “hard job”, while also opening up about his filming schedule.

“I honestly don’t know. I mean, I was over in England for eight months for The Crown and barely came back [to the U.S.]. I think I may have come back once or twice. I imagine that I can come back much more [on this],” he told the Smartless podcast.

“You know, Dumbledore is — he’s kind of the nuclear weapon. He only goes on very, very occasionally. And I think that — I don’t think it’s gonna be that hard a job, and we’ll just go back and forth.”

Meanwhile, former Harry Potter film series star David Tennant recently made a subtle dig at author J.K. Rowling when asked about potentially joining the show.

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