Is Harry Potter untouchable? For years, fans of the past two decades’ most celebrated literary saga have been divided about the original Warner Bros.
Is Harry Potter untouchable? For years, fans of the past two decades’ most celebrated literary saga have been divided about the original Warner Bros. adaptations of J.K. Rowling’s novels, complaining that some of the films sacrificed details from the books due to time and style issues. At the same time, that series’ lead actors—Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson—have become so embedded in our imagination that it’s nearly impossible not to picture their faces every time we pick up the books. Was there a need, then, for a fresh TV series based on the Harry Potter universe, eager to be as faithful as possible to the books?
Warner Bros. Discovery believes so. The fresh series, which is set to cover the events of one book each season, is expected to begin filming this summer. It’s only right that a story as emotionally and narratively impactful as Harry Potter should be told through fresh points of view. Yet it is also clear that some audiences—people who are accustomed to using social media as a place to vent—do not agree. Earlier this week, HBO announced the names of the three teenage actors who will play Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the series: Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout, and Arabella Stanton, respectively. But its streamer, Max, closed the comments under its announcement on Instagram, likely to prevent it from being flooded with insults and criticisms. It followed the same procedure when the actors playing Dumbledore, Quirrell, and others were announced—much to the indignation of some fans who were incensed over the series choosing a Black actor, Paapa Essiedu, to play Professor Snape.
Leaving aside the fact that this preemptive hatred seems based more in ignorance than anything else, we ask: Shouldn’t audiences consider seeing how the actors do first, then criticize them if necessary? If you think that Radcliffe, Grint, and Watson are the only actors who can ever conceivably play the main characters in Harry Potter, fine, don’t watch the series—go rewatch the films instead. But to insult three teenage actors simply for winning an audition seems to us a punishment worthy of an Imperius curse.
Original story in VF Italia.
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