Trailer for new Harry Potter series

[ItsCoolForCats]

The trailer for the new Harry Potter series has been released. In its write up, the Guardian of course had to have a dig about JK Rowling's "anti-transgender views" 🙄

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/mar/25/harry-potter-tv-series-trailer

It got me thinking, this series will run for about ten years, and I wonder if the perception of JKR will have shifted by the end. Will people (including so called journalists) be able to discuss the substance of what she has said, rather than just shouting "Bigot!", "Transphobe!" etc.

There was an interview with Paapa Essiedu in the Times recently, where he said he hasn't spoken to JKR, he doesn't regret signing the letter condemning the Supreme Court ruling and would do it again.

He said "“My points of view are mine and will continue to be so. I signed that letter because I believe that artists in the trans community have a right to be treated with dignity and should be able to work without being intimidated. I have been really supported by the production team and I’d sign that letter again today.”

If he actually spoke to JKR, he might be surprised to find that she would agree with him that people should be treated with dignity in the workplace and shouldn't be intimidated. I think it goes to show that he, like others, doesn't have a very good understanding of what this is about at all. Doesn't stop them sticking the boot into JKR though...

www.thetimes.com/article/8b7a7b6c-8e6e-4eef-bf45-69bb76a52f9d?shareToken=abbccd1782106049bcb5f5f3210ebc4c

I am mostly very happy for new actors to have the Harry Potter roles (and I like the look of little Harry and Ron!) but for me Snape will always be Alan Rickman. Dark greasy hair, pallid skin, nasty expression, sarcastic, buttoned tight into his black suit. What's not to loathe? And to admire, as his motives and backstory are gradually revealed. Rickman's a fine actor and he did a superb job. Also Snape's true motives were kept a close secret til the last book came out but Rickman was told in advance, which can't happen now.

Maybe they needed to do Snape very differently just for those reasons?

@Giggorata Snape is not ever hung upside down from a tree. James flips him upside in the air using his own spell.

I have to agree. For me, Alan Rickman IS Snape - he embodies the character so completely.

The only other actor I can think of who might manage anything approaching Rickman's brilliance in the role is Adam Driver (I'm thinking of his portrayal of Kylo Ren as being in the Snape-related area, personality-wise and looks-wise).

I never thought that Radcliffe and Watson were good actors so I'm happy to let new kids have a go at those roles and I hope the new actors actually enjoy the limelight more than their older counterparts did. I hope journalism is more ethical now in terms of how it treats child stars.

Rickman was brilliant as Snape but much too old and all that generation of characters had to be aged up alongside him.

Must admit I didn't notice. It was more like when you're 10 and your parents and teachers all seem about a million years old.

That's a good point but, to be honest, the actors playing adult cast for the films were all so good that I was actually glad they aged up that generation of teachers and adults 😊

Snape was 31 years old in the first book, Rickman was 54ish when he acted in the first film. Snape was 38 when he died in the last book, Rickman was 63 in the last film.

Unfortunately, I did notice.

Rickman was indeed too old, as were the 'marauders'. All brilliant actors but far too old. So I'd be interested in how they are casted.
If they are all white and snape is black, that would annoy me as it implies those characters may have been racist rather than Snape just being a "git".
Personally I don't care if Snape is black or white, its more about how the character is portrayed really.
Look at the casting of Dumbledore. We've had Richard Harris (stupidly slow speaker), Michael Gambon (the best so far), Jude Law (not great).
oooooo will Newt Scamander make a cameo??? Maybe as one of the portraits so he still looks young.

interesting American commentary on the HBO series causing massive temper tantrums about JKR:

I also like this video essay discussing how studios wanting to extract maximum value for shareholders from beloved IPs over the last decade has resulted in unhappy fans. And he argues that this is likely to happen again with Harry Potter despite promises of this being a faithful adaptation:

yeah there's a lot of disgruntled star wars fans who think that much or all of the disney output has been shite. I'm sympathetic there although I'm clearly easier to please than most, because I have enjoyed all of it (the episodes 7,8,9 movies were probably the bits I liked least).

Regardless of your opinion on the quality, it's clear that Disney bought the IP in order to make some money and they only get a chance to do that by making new SW movies or episodic shows.

JKR is wise to have kept herself a seat at the table as a producer (whereas I think Lucas has not been much involved in Disney's SW output, in contrast).

This would be my worry.

I don't necessarily think it's always important to keep movie characters looking the same as they were described in books, it can work just fine. The fact is that film is a more visual medium. That being said, some characters and authors have a stronger tie to a "look" even where there is no plot or character reason for them to look the same. I think that's fairly true of the Potter books, her descriptions of the people are really a big part of their characterisation. But there are still plenty who could be cast with an actor of a differernt race with no issues.

But Snape - we can all see what problems will be created by making him a black man. If it were really just chance they did that, maybe they would manage to overcome the challenges it could present.

But I really wonder, how likely is it that it was just by chance? Given what has happened to most things that have been touched by television in the last 10 years, I thing it is very likely that they made that casting decision very deliberately.

Why? The least worst possibility is because they want the controversy and brownie points, and are too stupid to realise what the effect on the plot will be, which does not bode well for their ability to manage it through the writing.

But the other possibility, and maybe the more likely one, is that they have done it because they want to bring race into it. And if that is true I can only think it is fucked.

I think PPs have made good points about how the bullying etc in Snape's time as a student will read with a black actor playing Snape. There's also a whiff of

SPOILERS

"black sidekick dies heroically for white hero to triumph" trope too!

I've no huge problem with the casting in of itself and let's see how it plays out.

We have seen Disney ruin Star Wars, Star Trek, Dr Who and many more.

To be fair to Disney, the BBC and RTD had already put Dr Who into a terminal coma. Disney just switched off the life support machine.

lol, it is start of Easter hols.

I love JKR, I was never into HP that much, but love her Strike books. Am really going to give the series a try. It'll also be one show I don't have to pre-watch for my kids in case it's got some idiot trans ideology in it.

I agree with the reservations @TempestTost and others have expressed about the casting of Snape. A black McGonagall would have been fantastic but it's highly unlikely to work with Snape.

Some of you might find this amusing. I like to read what 'the other side' say sometimes to ensure my knowledge is up-to-date but this is a TRA classic - hits all the major 'arguments' and shows just how thin (and unimaginative and unintelligent) their so-called justifications are.

https://www.theverge.com/report/901818/hbo-harry-potter-jk-rowling-transphobia

A black McGonagall! Heresy - she's a tabby cat! 😂 I was never sure if her feline appearence in Book 1 was a patronus, an animagus or just an illusion and maybe in Book 1 it didn't matter 😉

My Mum used to call this "cutting off your nose to spite your face".

Well, there's a couple of interesting ways they could play that out. The books and films explore racism through wizard/muggle, and even a bit of colonialism through wizards and goblins/centaurs/house elves. Otherwise they're mostly race-blind with occasional resort to stereotypes - don't get me started on French Veelas and militaristic Eastern Europeans and the less said about the goblins in the films the better.

So they could ignore the actor's race and play it colourblind. Maybe they just thought he's a good actor. Or they could treat racism as one factor in why Snape gets bullied. Not all black people are nice, and not all generally nice white people are innocent of a bit racism now and again especially not against someone they dislike already. Snape could have more than one source of bitterness. And until I see him make a mess of it I'm open to see a different characterisation of Snape.

And anyway, it is a kids' story and can't get everything right (as DH reminded me that "We Are Ladyparts" is a comedy and can't be expected to do online hate realistically)

Over-invested? Moi?

@AmaryllisNightAndDay

Talking about overinvested...I can't help but put myself in Harry's shoes. He found it distressing enough to come to terms with the idea that his father could have bullied another student, (partly) racist bullying would be an even bigger thing to be confronted with about your dead father. I agree that race is certainly a theme of the book but in this specific character, it will really complicate things (and possibly be a distraction).

I might feel particularly strongly because I never do come round to liking Snape. Knowing his secret motivation cannot quite make up for how nasty he is earlier on in the series, for me.

To change the subject, I hope we get to see Winky and I hope they get Voldemort's death scene right this time.

Women are adult human females. There is no other way to define women.

If you gave birth to children, you are a woman. A female. Plain and simple.

She defends the sex based rights of the female sex. That includes you.

I actually disagree I think it’s good to shake things up a bit . The trailer looks so similar to the movies I was surprised they didn’t come up with more slightly different takes on the characters than was done previously.

I decided to do a website test and see if articles by other people whose views/actions they should hate are covered the same way.
The Neil Gaiman case got a tiny blurb of an article with 0 boycott calls.
Blizzard Studios gets matter of fact reporting during the huge company sexual abuse case with no calls to boycott.
Interesting.
I'm not paying to see more though.

McGonagal, Dumbledore, Sirius Black, Hermione, maybe even Harry would have been workable.