The cast of the series Harry Potter is moving forward, although it is delayed until 2027. HBO is looking to reinvent JK Rowling's iconic characters, and one name stands out for Severus Snape: Paapa Essiedu, a British actor acclaimed for his roles in theater and on the small screen.
Even if the series is not expected to see the light of day before 2027 – HBO having announced on December 3 that it was postponed by a year – its cast is being put together little by little. The mission? Find the new interpreters of the characters created by JK Rowling in her literary saga which has become world famous, Harry Potter. Her books had already been transposed to the cinema for ten years and eight films thanks to a franchise which amazed many spectators between 2001 and 2011. They will now be adapted for the small screen by Francesca Gardiner for whom she will write the screenplay. If the lucky ones who will play the hero and his two friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger have not yet been chosen – they were played at the time by Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, the details are becoming clearer regarding Severus Snape.
The illustrious professor of potions at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry could be played by the Briton Paapa Essiedu according to the site Variety. If no contract has yet been signed and the actor has not yet officially accepted the proposal, he would be HBO's favorite to lend his features to the formidable teacher, head of the Slytherin house. He would thus succeed Alan Rickman, who had brilliantly played this role in each of the eight feature films. The actor died in 2016.
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Paapa Essiedu starred in an episode of Black Mirror
If the name Paapa Essiedu doesn't mean much to you, know that he was born in 1990 to Ghanaian parents. He began his career with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the United Kingdom, where he played the title roles in productions of Hamlet and of King Lear. After making a big impression in the BBC series One I May Destroy Youhe joins the cast of The Lazarus Project. In 2023, he got the main role in an episode of season six of Black Mirror, Demon 79available on Netflix. In the cinema, we could see him in Crime on the Orient Express by Kenneth Branagh, Men d’Alex Garland et The Outrun by Nora Fingscheidt alongside Saoirse Ronan.
