News broke today of two castings for the upcoming Harry Potter HBO TV show. According to the latest report, HBO is close to agreements with two actors for the roles of Severus Snape and Professor Minerva McGonagall. For these two roles, HBO has supposedly selected Paapa Essiedu and Janet McTeer, respectively. And word of these castings has set the Internet aflame. In particular, many Harry Potter fans are not impressed with the selection of Paapa Essiedu for the role of Professor Snape. It was previously reported earlier this year that HBO was eyeing Essiedu for the iconic role, and at the time there was substantial backlash over this prospect.
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To this end, it is possible many fans assumed HBO would be scared of the bold casting choice, but this has come to fruition. Whether the casting will prove to be a shrewd choice or not remains to be seen, but in the meantime, many Harry Potter fans, and seemingly the majority, are not impressed.
For example, the reaction from the popular Harry Potter Reddit page is almost universally negative, with many noting that Essiedu does not match the description of Snape’s character provided by the source material. Of course, it also doesn’t help that it is such a departure from the casting of Alan Rickman, who is beloved by the entire Harry Potter fandom.
“Well that was fun while it lasted,” reads one of the most popular comments on a post sharing the aforementioned Deadline report. “And I’m out. I thought the whole point of the series was to be more book accurate? There are so many other characters who they could race swap and it wouldn’t affect the storyline and probably enhance it,” reads a second reply from another fan.
A third fan adds, “If you can’t be bothered to correctly cast your show, this just tells me you won’t respect the pre-established lore. The books are literally right there, ready to be adapted word for word as fans of multiple franchises have asked for years and yet every time a new adaptation is announced, Hollywood drops the ball and hires some moron director with his own creative ‘vision.’ We don’t want a creative vision, we want the version that’s in the f-cking books.”
[RELATED: Harry Potter Fans Discover Detail That Makes Snape’s Story Even More Tragic]
It’s not just Harry Potter fans on Reddit that are unhappy with the Harry Potter TV series cast update, but the majority of the reaction on X echoes the sentiments above as well.
“Obviously, it would be a tough ask for any actor to live up to Alan Rickman’s performance as Snape, but why are they setting this man up like this,” writes one X user of the news. “Also, I thought the show was about trying to stay as true to the books as possible. C’mon man!”
How this will impact the show’s popularity remains to be seen, but it’s no doubt not a flawless start to life for the show with massive expectations, and fans are prepared to immediately bury it if it does not deliver. That said, with every new casting that comes out about the show, this expectation does seem to evaporate.
All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think. Meanwhile, for more Harry Potter coverage, click here.
