The point of the Harry Potter series other than “Warner Bros. wants money” seems to be some sort of new take on the books with longer seasons to space out the story, and a brand new cast that may bring something new to the role.
That has involved recasting every single role from the original films, but now, there’s an exception.
It’s just been announced that Warwick Davis is going to play Professor Filius Flitwick, a part he held across the original eight films (he also played the Goblin Griphook, but he will not play him again, as that part has been recast). Professor Flitwick is the Charms professor in the school, and while he’s not exactly a key character in most of the storylines, it’s still interesting to see Davis to return to the part.
Davis is no stranger to reprising old roles, as he recently did in the 2022 Willow show, playing the lead role that he did in the 1998 movie. That didn’t go that well, but we’ll see how Harry Potter turns out this time. It’s not likely going to hinge on him, of course.
Again, this is, as of now, the only role that has retained an original actor from the films. While part of this is no doubt to separate the new show from the movies, a number of characters have actors who have actually died since those films (two Dumbledores, McGonagall, Snape, Hagrid) while others are of course too old to return, which would be all the students, who began their parts at 11-12 years old (Daniel Radcliffe, for example, is now 36).
This announcement also came with a number of side-character casting reveals, and we have:
- Sirine Saba as Professor Pomona Sprout
- Richard Durden as Professor Cuthbert Binns
- Brid Brennan as Madam Poppy Pomfrey
- Elijah Oshin as Dean Thomas
- Finn Stephens as Vincent Crabbe
- William Nash as Gregory Goyle
It feels like we are close to running out of named roles to keep casting in Philosopher’s Stone, at least. There is, however, one role being kept under wraps, whoever will play Voldemort himself. Former Voldemort actor Ralph Fiennes chose Cillian Murphy to fill his shoes, but he…doesn’t get to choose, and we don’t know if Murphy will be involved. Keep in mind, whoever takes parts like this has their dance card booked for probably the next decade or more. That’s why we’ve seen questions raised about an actor like John Lithgow taking on the role of Dumbledore when he’s already 79. Hopefully he stays healthy.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.