The Harry Potter series was a worldwide phenomenon that made author J.K. Rowling the world’s first, as far as is known, billionaire book author (although some say that status had already been reached slightly earlier by relentlessly successful author Stephen King, who has had over 54 of his novels and stories made into movies or tv presentations, and has a known net worth currently above $600 million dollars).
Whether that accolade is accurate or not, it is known that the Harry Potter 7-book cache is the world’s most successful book series—recognized as the best-selling book series in history with over 600 million copies sold worldwide—according to all current record-keeping. And the movies made from the books set an audience and financial record that may never be broken. To say that the Harry Potter book and movie series was gigantic in its reach and public appeal would be faint praise, indeed. Clearly it was much more than that.
HBO has now scheduled the filming of a new interpretation of the Harry Potter series (originally made into 8 popular movies) scheduled to begin showing on cable tv in 2026 or 2027. Clearly, all of the former Hogwarts actors have either died or aged out, so there will be plenty of new faces. One special new face, which may cause an avalanche of public protests (hopefully not), is a British-Black actor—Paapa Essiedu—to play the essential role of Professor Severus Snape, the amorous early friend of Harry Potter’s mother, and the close associate of Harry’s benefactor and mentor, Professor Albus Dumbledore. Though strongly featured in his own book, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” Professor Snape is an essential character in every one of the seven Harry Potter texts. So the role offered to Mr. Essiedu is not a secondary one.
Scheduled for Warner Brothers Studios in England to start filming the new series in the summer of 2025, the plan is for the cable giant HBO, beginning in 2027, and based on the original books, to present a complete seven-season adaptation—each season covering one book—and doing an exploration of each storyline in greater depth and detail than previously done in the movies.
Former executive personnel for successful HBO shows like “Succession” have hired on to pilot this huge project, so the effort will not be frugal. Besides Paapa Essiedu, John Lithgow, the well-known white actor, is reported to be in negotiations to play Professor Albus Dumbledore, and the ever-engaging actress Janet McTeer is to play Professor McGonagall.
A black actor playing Prof. Severus Snape may or may not be a serious problem for the new project. It remains to be seen which way that will go. There will be other cultural choices made for other performers, too, but the critically important Prof. Snape (a centrally important character played by a Black actor, who is not Denzel Washington or Samuel L. Jackson) is the most serious gamble for the production. Already, a Black actress playing Hermione Granger—the female lead in the stories—in the London and New York staged drama, “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” was seriously criticized for changing the role from a pretty little white girl to an African princess. There are no current known plans to make that same change in this new HBO production.
The aim is to achieve the heights of HBO’s multiple-award winning “Game of Thrones” franchise or at least “House of the Dragon.” With the D.E.I.-adverse administration of Donald Trump and other factors, it will be interesting to see how this project turns out. After all, under Mr. Trump, the enormously successful “Alexander Hamilton” production company has lately ceased production in the nation’s capital after Mr. Trump took over the chairship of the Kennedy Center board.
The political intrigue of getting this Harry Potter production piece mounted and completed may end up being just another political drama no one wants to see.
Professor David L. Horne is founder and executive director of PAPPEI, the Pan African Public Policy and Ethical Institute, which is a new 501(c)(3) pending community-based organization or non-governmental organization (NGO). It is the stepparent organization for the California Black Think Tank which still operates and which meets every fourth Friday.
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