Earlier this week, John Lithgow was announced to take on the role of Professor Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s upcoming “Harry Potter” television series.
As the Deseret News previously reported, the “Footloose” actor was surprised to be asked to play the wise, old professor but is “very excited” for the opportunity.
However, there is one thing that stands out about the latest casting news: Lithgow isn’t British.
John Lithgow is American
While Lithgow’s nationality doesn’t take away from his talent as an actor, it may raise some eyebrows. In the original films, most of the main characters were played by British actors, especially a role as significant as Dumbledore.
Over the course of the franchise, the Headmaster has been played by three different actors.
Richard Harris played the role in the first two movies of the franchise and then Micheal Gambon took over the role for the rest of the films after Harris’s death in 2002, per the Deseret News.
In the “Fantastic Beasts” series — set years before Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) was born — the young, charming professor was played by Jude Law.
According to GameRant, these three predecessors makes casting Lithgow so notable because it’s “a huge departure from how the movies worked.”
So far only two other actors have been reported as potentially being added to the cast for the series, both being British actors.
As previously reported by the Deseret News, Paapa Essiedu is in the talks of playing the mysterious Professor Severus Snape and Cillian Murphy is potentially being considered to play Voldemort. Nothing has been confirmed regarding these roles as of now.
Why the original films stars were British
According to IndieWire, J.K. Rowling was adamant about the entire cast consisting of only British actors, in which the American director for the first two movies, Chris Columbus, felt the same way.
This “Brits only” rule was “so important” that it even resulted in Robin Williams being rejected to play Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) in “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” as well as Lupin (David Thewlis) in “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban,” reported IndieWire.
“Robin would have been brilliant,” said Columbus, according to IndieWire. “It would have been a different interpretation — I thought David Thewlis was great — but Robin would have been brilliant."
However, Columbus' daughter, Eleanor Columbus, was able to land a part in the first film as the first student to be sorted by the sorting hat, Susan Bones, but she never had any lines, per IndieWire.
What does Lithgow’s casting mean for the show?
According to GameRant, there are two possible outcomes of Lithgow’s casting decision.
First, this may allow more opportunities to open up for American actors to take part in the beloved story, making the upcoming series have a “drastically different look and feel” from the original movies.
Additionally, HBO has said that they are dedicated to having an inclusive and diverse cast for the show, according to Deseret News.
However, GameRant also suggests that hiring Lithgow could be one exception, while the rest of the cast will still strictly be from across the pond. But for now you will have to wait and see.