The upcoming Harry Potter show, coming to HBO (including streaming on HBO Max), has finally found the crucial part of its cast, having already signed up a combination of Hollywood and British names for its adults cast.
Harry, Hermione and Ron have all been cast, and as you’d expect for young kids, they’re pretty unknown names.
Dominic McLaughlin will play Harry Potter, and is somehow already a veteran of the ‘kid attends mysterious school for those with special skills’ genre, having played a part in the BBC show Gifted, about kids with superpowers.
Arabella Stanton plays Hermione Granger, and also isn’t new to acting, having played Matilda in the wonderful Matilda the Musical in London’s West End, and followed that up with a role in Starlight Express on stage.
Alastair Stout plays Ron Weasley, and is notable among the three for having the name most like a character in the Harry Potter books. He seems to have the least acting experience of the three, but has appeared in a potato commercial – which also somehow feels very appropriate for Ron.
The new show is scheduled to film in summer 2025, so they’ll have to get stuck straight into their textbooks to be ready to go. It’s expected that the early books will take up a season each, nice and neatly.
By the time we get the fourth book/season, we might find that things need to be split across two chunks of episodes – we’ll see, but the best streaming services love to split seasons, so you have to assume it’ll be the case here.
The rest of the cast
The kids will join John Lithgow as Hogwarts’ headteacher Albus Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch, and Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirell.
There’s a huge swathe of roles not cast yet, of course (at least, not officially), ranging from the likes of the Weasley siblings through to Neville Longbottom – but perhaps the biggest missing role is Draco Malfoy.
We don’t know exactly when the show will air yet, but it’s planned to arrive in 2026.
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