The television adaption of the Harry Potter books is gathering pace. There are many names now being put in the frame for various roles.
Those rumored include Mark Rylance or Mark Strong for Headmaster Professor Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu for Potions, and later Defence Against The Dark Arts, Master Severus Snape, Brett Goldstein as groundskeeper Hagrid, and Sharon Horgan as Professor Minerva McGonagall.
In the books, a number of the adult characters were a little younger than the versions in the movies. Showrunner Francesca Gardiner and series director Mark Mylod previously confirmed that they will follow this for the series. The books also famously got much, much longer as they progressed, leading to quite a lot of detail and sub-plots to be cut from the movie adaptions.
The serial format is expected to put a lot of this backstory back in, with each series covering one year at school, therefore one book, and is made up of at least 8 episodes that are an hour long each.
Now online scooper Daniel Richtman says another offer is out for a role. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny curse Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been offered the role of Harry Potter’s aunt Petunia Dursley.
In the movies, she was played by Fiona Shaw and was quite a two-dimensional character. In the books, things were revealed about her background and her relationship with her sister, Harry’s mother. The placing of infant Harry with her family for protection, after Voldemort killed his parents and tried to kill him as a baby, had implications that would play out later in the story.
The big news will, of course, be the casting of the three child leads. Showrunners are currently looking through tens of thousands of audition tapes.
Harry Potter will debut on Max sometime towards the end of 2026 at the earliest.