Harry Potter TV series officially casts John Lithgow and Nick Frost with four other actors for regular and recurring roles

Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has officially closed the deal on six actors who will be in adult roles for Max’s new Harry Potter series. While John Lithgow and Nick Frost have been announced to be in talks for the show, they are now officially cast as Dumbledore and Hagrid. While Lithgow had already spoken about taking on the role of Dumbledore, Frost had teased his involvement with an Instagram post that cryptically read, “It’s happening, it’s actually happening.”

Lithgow and Frost are reportedly joined by Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, along with the two newly announced actors — Luke Thallon, who is to play Quirinus Quirrell, and Paul Whitehouse, who will be portraying Argus Filch. Whitehouse is the only actor cast in the show who has also appeared in the original Harry Potter films. He also portrayed Sir Cadogan in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Per Deadline, “The franchise follows the life of a young wizard, the titular Harry Potter, whose parents died under mysterious circumstances when he was very young. He was forced to live a life of misery and servitude to his aunt and uncle and their awful son before he was freed from his gilded cage when Hagrid extended an invitation that changed his life forever. The adventure begins as Harry and his magical friends Ron and Hermoine become students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, who come of age in a time of extreme turmoil where the threat of war looms close.”

As for Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, upwards of 32,000 kids have auditioned for the roles, and the selection process is still ongoing. Succession‘s Francesca Gardiner will serve as a writer and showrunner on the series, while Mark Mylod signed on to executive produce and direct multiple episodes. The project was originally developed for Max but made the leap to HBO (along with a variety of other Max shows) last summer.

Each season of the Harry Potter TV series is said to cover one of J.K. Rowling’s novels, for a total of seven seasons. While the movies were able to fit quite a lot in, there were plenty of moments cut from the novels that the TV series will finally be able to bring to life. Last year, the studio released a statement saying, “Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.” Production is expected to kick off this summer.

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