Harry Potter fans already torn over Snape recasting

This is not how to recast Alan Rickman

Ewan Moore

Published 09:14 14 Apr 2023 GMT+1

Unless you've been living in a shoe at the bottom of the ocean for the last week, odds are you've heard the news: Harry Potter is being rebooted as a one-book-per-series TV show with an all-new cast.

In a move that nobody could possibly describe as creatively bankrupt, Harry Potter author JK Rowling is attached to produce the series, which is billing itself as a "faithful retelling of the books".

You may be asking yourself who this is supposed to be for. On the one hand, you have the lapsed Harry Potter fans who have long since abandoned the franchise in the wake of Rowling's controversial and inflammatory views on the trans community. They're obviously boycotting the show.

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On the other hand, you have die-hard Potter fans who still watch the movies every year, a group who will undoubtedly balk at any attempt to recast the characters they've come to know and love. I mean, say what you will about Potter, but those movies were perfectly cast.

Which brings us to the thorny matter of Severus Snape. Few would argue that the casting of the late, great Alan Rickman in the original movies wasn't one of the most inspired pieces of casting in cinema history. Rickman embodied the slimy potions professor with ease, throwing a dry sense of humour and buried pain into the bargain. Whoever steps into his dragon-skin shoes will have a hard time winning the fans over - and Potterheads are already tearing themselves apart trying to decide who, exactly, should be the new Snape.

Over on Twitter a number of fans have suggested that Adam Driver (Marriage Story, Star Wars: The Last Jedi) could be a suitable Snape. It's hard not to think most people have arrived at this conclusion because he's a skinny white dude with long black hair, but whatever. You also have to feel for the one fella on Twitter who suggested Warner Bros. should simply keep Alan Rickman in the role. Nobody tell him.