The new Harry Potter remake series on HBO Max has broken a rule that J.K. Rowling set for the original movies and its a good thing. The original Harry Potter movies were a massive success, and a lot of the credit goes to the incredible cast put together to tell these stories. Other than the kids in the lead toles, the professors were played by a who’s who of British talent, and that is because Rowling demanded the movie cast the roles in that manner. However, while that was a great group of actors that helped raise the prestige of the films, the HBO Max series no longer has those restrictions.
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One of the biggest casting choice for the new Harry Potter HBO Max series is John Lithgow as Dumbledore, the first American actor cast for any of the original Harry Potter Hogwarts characters. This broke J.K. Rowling’s original demands for her adaptations.
Harry Potter is Finally Hiring Non-Europeans, And This is a Good Thing
When the Harry Potter movies was starting, and casting was underway, J.K. Rowling had a say in who was cast. To put it bluntly, Rowling said that only British actors could be cast in the films. Chris Columbus, who directed the first movie in the series, and who was responsible for putting the original cast together, said the rule was set in stone and he couldn’t even break it. The rule was so important that Columbus said that she couldn’t even allow his own daughter to appear in a small role unless he guaranteed she would never speak in the film. She ended up playing Susan Bones, the first students to put on the sorting hat, but she wasn’t allowed any dialogue. “The rule was, if you’re not British, you can’t speak,” Columbus said.
Luckily, that has changed. While the cast from the original movies was brilliant and featured some of the best British actors of their generation, the new HBO Max series no longer has to follow Rowling’s original edict. John Lithgow, an American actor both in New York, signed on to play Dumbledore in the new movie. It should be noted that Lithgow did study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, but he is still an American, so that is what really matters when it comes to the new series.
This is not to say that the original cast needed Americans in it. With names like Richard Harris, Warwick Davis, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, and so many more, the casting couldn’t have gotten much better. However, allowing the HBO Max series to add non British actors to roles has opened the door for more varied casting, and more options. It should be said that most of the cast are still British and European actors, but allowing people like Lithgow to play major characters is a nice change of pace for the franchise. However, for those who liked the original rule, it is important to note that the three main Harry Potter kids are all European, with Dominic McLaughlin (Harry) from Scotland, Arabella Stanton (Hermione) from London, and Alastair Stout (Ron) from Manchester.
Robin Williams Wanted to Be in Original Harry Potter Movies
According to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone casting director Janet Hirshenson (via ITM), Robin Williams reached out to Chris Columbus and wanted to star in the movie as Hagrid. Even as one of Hollywood’s biggest stars and an Oscar winner (Good Will Hunting), Columbus was forced to reject Williams from the role. Despite Williams passionately wanting to be in the franchise, Columbus had to move on and ended up casting the brilliant Robbie Coltrane in the role.
“The ‘only British’ rule was so important that Robin Williams was even turned down to play Hagrid,” Hirshenson said. “Robin had called because he really wanted to be in the movie, but it was a British-only edict, and once he said no to Robin, he wasn’t going to say yes to anybody else, that’s for sure. It couldn’t be.”
Williams even spoke publicly about it and he called out the “no Americans” rule that J.K. Rowling put in place for the Harry Potter movies. Interestingly, Williams tried again two movies later when he wanted to appear in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban for Alfonso Cuaron, but not even the brilliant Spanish director could get him into the movie. The British only rule caused David Thewlis to get the job, although Columbus later said that Williams would have been “brilliant” in the role.
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