The Harry Potter remake is in a special place right now, with pre-production underway yet casting news still scarce, leaving room for fans, journalists, and franchise veterans to speculate. This week, the question came to Jason Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy in the film series from 2002 to 2011. Isaacs is currently promoting The White Lotus Season 3, but he spared time for a Harry Potter question during an interview with Variety on Monday. When asked who should take over the role of the Malfoy patriarch, Isaacs proposed “Meryl Streep. She can do anything, that woman. There’s literally no limit to what she can do.”
Videos by ComicBook.com
Isaacs may have been joking here, at least to some extent. Streep is one of the most accomplished actors of all time, and her ability to slip into any role with complete immersion has become a bit memetic over the years. He may also have been going for a subtle jab at author J.K. Rowling, who has made her preoccupation with other peoples’ gender presentation very plain. At the same time, the idea of changing characters is clearly not off the table in this remake — the frontrunner to play Severus Snape Ghanian-British actor Paapa Essiedu, so why not toy around with the Malfoy family’s demographics as well?
Isaacs went on to say that he “wouldn’t have any advice at all” for the next actor to take on the role of Lucius — or any role in this massive franchise. “Why would I bother?” he said. “I know some of the people they’re casting already. They’re brilliant actors. It’s going to be fantastic, and the last thing they need is advice from some old fart like me.”
[RELATED: These Are the 7 Most Powerful Harry Potter Characters]
It seems highly unlikely that the Harry Potter remake could lock down the incomparable Meryl Streep for a 10-season TV commitment, but Isaacs’ suggestion does pose an interesting idea. It also seems highly unlikely that Rowling would sign off on a woman playing a male version of Lucius Malfoy after her years-long tirade against transgender rights. Many Harry Potter stars have distanced themselves from Rowling over this rhetoric, but Isaacs was relatively neutral when he commented on it in 2022.
“There’s a bunch of stuff about Jo… I don’t want to get drawn into the trans issues, talking about them, because it’s such an extraordinary minefield,” Isaacs told The Telegraph at the time. One of the things that people should know about her too — not as a counter-argument — is that she has poured an enormous amount of her fortune into making the world a much better place, for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable children through her charity Lumos. And that is unequivocally good. Many of us Harry Potter actors have worked for it, and seen on the ground the work that they do. So for all that she has said some very controversial things, I was not going to be jumping to stab her in the front — or back — without a conversation with her, which I’ve not managed to have yet.”
Rowling’s advocacy against transgender rights has already driven many fans away from to boycott the Harry Potter franchise altogether, and it poses a challenge for any actor joining the remake series. The new show will reportedly begin filming in August, and is expected to premiere sometime in 2026 on HBO and Max. The White Lotus Season 3 has two more episodes to go, airing on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
