Harry Potter Reboot Casts Another Character Missing From The Movies (& Fixes A Major Problem)

HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter reboot series has already been making headlines for some of the changes made to the original movie sequence. There’ve been rumors of Voldemort’s appearance long before he’s due, confirmation of Nicolas Flamel’s inclusion, and leaks of full sequences previously excised in the name of brevity. More should follow, including restored characters like Peeves, and the reboot will – despite complaints from original director Chris Columbus – prove its value through creative difference.

The latest confirmed change is the reported casting of another character who didn’t feature in the original adaptation of The Sorcerer’s Stone. According to Redandian Intelligence, Jake Curran has joined the cast as centaur Ronan. For fans of the films, he was supposed to be a close ally of both Firenze and the fiery Bane, and initially met Hagrid as he was investigating the death of the unicorn. In the movie, his involvement was removed entirely, and only Firenze appeared. And if the report of his appearance proves to be true, we have reason to believe this will be a positive stroke for the remake. Because Ronan is both surprisingly important, and Curran’s involvement may signal a fix to one of the first movie’s biggest issues.

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Ronan may not appear many times in the books, but he is an important figure in 3 key scenes. He insists Bane doesn’t hurt Hermione, Ron, and Harry when they visit Grawp because of their age, leads the centaurs into the Battle of Hogwarts (a sadly removed part), and also prophesies war in an overlooked book scene, through a repeated mantra that “Mars is bright”. His divination powers (Mars is a symbol of war, of course) offer an ominous look to the future for Harry and Hogwarts, and also set up Firenze’s eventual job teaching Divination at Hogwarts.

But arguably more importantly, announcing an actual actor for Ronan suggests we may get to avoid the horrendous CGI that plagued the first movie’s centaur scene. When Harry is rescued by Firenze, any close scrutiny of the magical creature is horribly uncharitable. So bad was the effects work that the entire scene is so dark that it’s almost impossible to see anything. Which is, sadly, for the best.

Curran being cast, and resembling the physical description of Ronan… minus the, erm, horse part… is a positive sign that we’ll actually get good-looking centaurs. And if the reboot can improve on some of the more ghastly CGI scenes that have aged poorly in the original, that’s definitely going to be a popular improvement.

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