By Quentin Piton | Journalist Series – Cinema
Journalist specializing in series, cinema, but also anime and manga. Spends his time dreaming of Emma Watson, considers Olivier Giroud the GOAT and refuses to speak with those who are against the absolute truth which is: How I Met Your Mother is a better series than Friends.
As is the case with every adaptation project: the public forgets that the very concept of an adaptation is not to redo everything identically. But on the contrary, creative liberties can be taken. A direction that the production of the Harry Potter series would choose to free itself from the films (and a little from JK Rowling’s books) which does not please the public. In question? A possible black actor (Paapa Essiedu) to play Severus Snape.
“Let’s go for the boycott”: the actor who will play Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series found? Fans angry at the choice (yes, it’s a racist controversy) © TF1 / Warner Bros
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Hollywood having long lost its talent for innovation, HBO and Warner Bros are now working on a remake of the saga Harry Potter. The twist? Exit the cinema, it is in the form of a series that the story imagined by JK Rowling will arrive on our screens around 2026/2027.
The new Severus Snape found?
And while the casting phase has officially been launched in the United Kingdom, the first rumors are finally starting to emerge. Also, while Ralph Fiennes is now campaigning for Cillian Murphy to succeed him as Voldemort, it is the character Severus Rogue who is talking about him today.
According to Variety – usually well informed, the production would like to convince a star to I May Destroy You et Gangs of London to reprise the role played brilliantly by Alan Rickman in the film franchise. His name? Especially Essiedu. A choice which would not be illogical given that it had been announced that the casting would be significantly more inclusive than at the time of the films, but which has nothing official yet.
“We appreciate that such an important series is embroiled in numerous rumors and speculation.HBO simply responded. As we move forward in pre-production, we will only confirm details once we finalize them“.
A casting already criticized
Unfortunately (and sadly unsurprisingly), the possibility of such a casting is far from unanimous among the public. Even though Paapa Essiedu is an excellent actor (he was notably nominated for the Emmy Awards for best supporting actor in 2021), many Internet users only focus on one thing: his lack of physical resemblance with the version of Snape described in the books. And in particular… his skin color. A situation which also echoes that experienced by actress Nico Parker in the live-action film Dragons.
“That would be pure bullshit put*in we have to put an end to it this forced diversity which destroys immersion and credibility“, we can now read on Twitter, just like, “More brothel, Is it that hard to respect the characters’ traits?“, “I didn’t want to watch the series but even less“, “Let’s go for the boycott“, or even “Wokism in all its splendor“.
We suspected this a little given current events, but it is not yet in 2024 that open-mindedness has conquered the world.
It will be recalled that the London play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child had already opted for diversity in casting with the recruitment of Noma Dumezweni for the role of Hermione. A choice that proved relevant, given her award for best supporting actress in a play at the Laurence Olivier Awards, and her nomination for the Tony Awards.
