Janet McTeer, Nick Frost and Luke Thallon also to appear in upcoming Max series
Max’s upcoming Harry Potter series has confirmed a raft of additions to its cast, including John Lithgow, Paapa Essiedu and Paul Whitehouse.
The HBO series has cast Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore and Essiedu as Severus Snape, with Janet McTeer playing Minerva McGonagall and Nick Frost starring as Rubeus Hagrid.
The quartet will serve as series regulars, while newly announced guest/recurring cast includes Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell and Whitehouse as Argus Filch.
It is not Whitehouse’s first outing in a Potter universe, with the Gone Fishing star having previously starred as Sir Cadogan in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
The series, which is from HBO in association with Bronte Film and Warner Bros TV, will be “a faithful adaptation” of the novel of J.K. Rowling, who is attached as executive producer.
Francesca Gardiner, who wrote the series, is showrunner and executive producer, with Mark Mylod directing multiple episodes. Mylod also exec produces with Neil Blair, Ruth Kenley-Letts of Brontë Film and TV, and David Heyman of Heyday Films.
“We’re delighted to have such extraordinary talent onboard, and we can’t wait to see them bring these beloved characters to new life,” Gardiner and Mylod said.
The long-awaited show will cover similar ground to the hugely successful film series, which ran from 2001 to 2011, but delve deeper into each novel.
Eights films were produced, based on the seven novels that Rowling wrote, with the final book - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - split into two movies.
The series is expected to run for a decade and will stream exclusively on Max where it is available, including upcoming markets such as Turkey, the UK, Germany, and Italy, among others.
UK pay TV operator Sky sued WBD last year over the series, arguing the US studio had breached terms of a co-production deal which the London-based company felt had prevented it from partnering on the forthcoming show.
The case was settled after Sky and WBD agreed a long-term content partnership in December. That deal means the Potter series will be available on Sky only via the Max app, which is being made available to customers at no extra cost from 2026.
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