Posted in: Current News, HBO, Max, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: harry potter, opinion

Harry Potter Author Reminds New Cast of What They're Getting Into

Warwick Davis will return as Professor Filius Flitwick for HBO's Harry Potter, and the author found an interesting way to "welcome" the cast.

What better way to start the week than with a chance to share some casting news about HBO, showrunner/EP Francesca Gardiner, and director/EP Mark Mylod's upcoming Dominic McLaughlin (Harry Potter), Arabella Stanton (Hermione Granger), and Alastair Stout (Ron Weasley)-starring series adaptation of the "Harry Potter" and editorialize about the way the author chose to "welcome" the new cast? During Monday's "Back to Hogwarts" event, it was announced that Warwick Davis would reprise his role as Professor Filius Flitwick. In addition, the Hogwarts student body welcomes Elijah Oshin as Dean Thomas, Finn Stephens as Vincent Crabbe, and William Nash as Gregory Goyle. On the Hogwarts staffing side, we have Sirine Saba as Professor Pomona Sprout, Richard Durden as Professor Cuthbert Binns, and Bríd Brennan as Madam Poppy Pomfrey.

EDITORIAL: Not long after the news hit, the "Harry Potter" author went on social media to offer the newest members of the cast exactly what they're signing up for. "As another man who once worked with me declares himself saddened by my beliefs on gender and sex, I thought it might be useful to compile a list for handy reference. Which of the following do you imagine makes actors and directors who aren't involved with the HBO reboot of Harry Potter so miserable?" JK Rowling wrote on Twitter/X, going on to offer the same rundown of points that they've offered in the past. We're assuming that was directed at a certain director, who shared why they wouldn't return to the franchise.

Full disclosure? I have a penis, and I don't agree with a whole lot of what Rowling rants about. I'm sharing that upfront because Rowling and her followers would try to argue that my having the former explains the latter. It's the same steaming pile of divisive, "us vs. them" nonsense that you would see coming from someone like… oh, I don't know. Donald Trump? Except Rowling would like you to believe that those pushing for the transgender community not to be treated like second-class citizens does more societal harm than Trump: "That said ideology, and the privileged, blinkered fools pushing it because they suffer zero consequences themselves, have done more damage to the political left's credibility than Trump and Farage could have achieved in a century?"

To be blunt, I don't need to be lectured by a one-issue billionaire bully/victim who claims to be concerned about women and then name-drops Trump. Maybe take a few minutes and get up to speed on what Trump, the GOP, and the MAGA movement have done, are doing, and are planning to do to turn the U.S. into an all-too-real "Handmaid's Tale." If you hate the transgender community, then own it. Don't wrap it up in a blanket of "Women need protecting!" bullshit and then turn a blind eye to those in power stripping away women's rights daily. Your priorities are weak, misdirected, and righteously hypocritical – another false pop culture prophet who bought into their own hype, with a fanbase to keep fueling their ego.

Also joining McLaughlin, Stanton, and Stout are Paapa Essiedu as Prof. Severus Snape John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell, Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch, Katherine Parkinson as Molly Weasley, Lox Pratt as Draco Malfoy, Johnny Flynn as Lucius Malfoy, Leo Earley as Seamus Finnigan, Alessia Leoni as Parvati Patil, Sienna Moosah as Lavender Brown, Bel Powley as Petunia Dursley, Daniel Rigby as Vernon Dursley, and Bertie Carvel as Cornelius Fudge. In addition, we have Rory Wilmot as Neville Longbottom, Amos Kitson as Dudley Dursley, Louise Brealey as Madam Rolanda Hooch, Anton Lesser as Garrick Ollivander, Tristan Harland as Fred Weasley, Gabriel Harland as George Weasley, Ruari Spooner as Percy Weasley, and Gracie Cochrane as Ginny Weasley.

The series is written and executive-produced by showrunner Francesca Gardiner (Succession, His Dark Materials, Killing Eve). Mark Mylod (Succession, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us) will executive produce and direct multiple episodes of the series for HBO in association with Brontë Film and TV and Warner Bros. Television. The series is executive produced by the creator of "Harry Potter," Neil Blair, and Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film and TV, and David Heyman of Heyday Films.

On the production side, we have a lineup of department heads that includes Adriano Goldman (Director of Photography), Cate Hall (Hair and Makeup Designer), Paul Herbert (Stunt Coordinator), Mark Holt (SFX Supervisor), Mara LePere-Schloop (Production Designer), Naomi Moore (Set Decorator), John Nolan (Creature Effects Design Supervisor), Alexis Wajsbrot (VFX Supervisor), Dom Sidoli (VFX Producer), and Holly Waddington (Costume Designer).

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