Harry Potter TV Series Suffers First Recast As Season 2 Filming Underway

The Harry Potter TV series has suffered its first major recast, and hopefully it’s not the first of many.

It was bound to happen eventually. The series aims to retell and expand upon the original stories by J.K Rowling, going further than the films ever could due to their limited runtime.

With seven books to get through across several years, the current cast was destined to lose a few faces along the way, we just didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Is Currently In The Works

Fear not, the core trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione are all the same. They're played by Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton respectively.

John Lithgow will continue to play Albus Dumbledore and Paapa Essiedu will continue to play Severus Snape, the latter of which being quite controversial amongst “fans” of the franchise.

It’s one of the Weasleys that’ll see a change of face, specifically Ginny. As reported by Variety, Ginny’s current actress has unexpectedly stepped down, meaning a new actress will soon take her place. There’s currently no word on who this might be yet, but it’ll likely be another unknown star at the beginning of their career.

The reason for Cochrane’s departure has been blamed on “unforeseen circumstances,” though no specifics were given.

While Ginny isn’t a member of the core group, she’s still an important character in the story as a love interest for Harry. It’s a relationship that many fans felt to be undervalued and poorly handled in the film adaptations as it was only towards the final films where their relationship started to bloom.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- Credit Warner Bros

The hope is the TV show will handle it better, which makes this recast a tricky development.

That said, it arguably comes at a decent time as Ginny plays a more prominent role in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets than she does in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Had this recast been done halfway through the show’s life, it’d probably be more jarring, but we haven’t even seen the first season yet so the timing is as good as it could be.

The main fear is it could be one of many recasts set to shake-up the show throughout its run. Most of the actors involved have spoken about the longevity of the series, with John Lithgow for example believing it could be one of the last roles he’ll play as an actor.

It seems like the majority of the cast know what they’re getting in for though, and there are even some names yet to be announced. We still don’t know who’ll be playing Harry’s nemesis Voldemort.

The first season of Harry Potter will debut on HBO later this year, with production currently underway on the second season.

READ MORE: Hogwarts Legacy 2 Release Teased Ahead of Major Reveal Next Month