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Drunken Overseas Bettor said:SpreadsheetAg said:
John Lithgow as Dumbledore seems.... odd
He was a fantastic Churchill in the Crown. I'd imagine that influenced this casting.
YouBet said:Drunken Overseas Bettor said:SpreadsheetAg said:
John Lithgow as Dumbledore seems.... odd
He was a fantastic Churchill in the Crown. I'd imagine that influenced this casting.
Lithgow as Churchill is an odder casting choice than him as Dumbledore, IMO. Having a 6'4 American play a 5'6 Englishman was out of left field. I thought he did fine, but never understood the choice.
Granted, I'm continually amazed at the number of English and Australian actors that I discover to not be from here after the fact. So, it was good to have some revenge casting having an American play arguably the most famous and influential Englishman in the last couple of hundred years.
Redstone said:
The point is Representation. So not necessarily, but it's really heartening to see the producers, showrunners, writers, actors (including Radcliffe and Watson), and fans embracing more modern and updated casting decisions.
The new series, for the leading roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, announced in September 2024, explicitly stated that the production is "committed to inclusive, diverse casting."
We can hope they live up to this ideal, including for "lesser" roles.
Redstone said:
There are strong reports of Diverse actors for supporting roles like the Weasley siblings, and message boards indicate at least one character, noted as Black in the books, is very unlikely to be changed, though specifics remain unclear.
Regardless, we need to applaud HBO's broader effort to address past criticisms of the franchise's lack of BIPOC Representation.
Redstone said:
We've been watching Potter content on HBO Max, including the game show hosted by Helen Mirren (actress).
It was wonderful to see an abundance of Diversity, including with the winning team, Hufflepuff. It was especially good to see Luke Youngblood again.
Lathspell said:
I can honestly say, I do not understand the Redstone trolling. Nor do I understand how someone has the sheer will to stick with that schtick for so long.
Claude! said:Lathspell said:
I can honestly say, I do not understand the Redstone trolling. Nor do I understand how someone has the sheer will to stick with that schtick for so long.
It's performance art.
Lathspell said:
I dislike most of his line delivery because I just don't think it sounds like Dumbledore, to me. He was a good actor and and all, he just wasn't Dumbledore, for me.
Richard Harris was perfect in his scenes from 1 and 2, but we never got to see his version of the Half-blood prince Dumbledore, so who's to say how he would have handled those.
The John Lithgow casting is one I am very intrigued by. It actually may be the ONLY casting that I'm actually excited to see.
For the child actors, I just hope their acting chops are decent. I don't want another Harry who makes me cringe with just about every line delivery.
So many of my critiques on the casting for this come from a point of view of loving the source material. I would LOVE to get a deeper dive into all the tangential story arcs. But, as you mentioned, I am most excited for the Harry/Dumbledore scenes that they basically neutered in all the movies. Some of those scenes are at the same level as the best dialogue moments in GoT. Hopefully the showrunners take the time to flesh those out and let the scenes breathe.
And PLEASE, when you get to the Order of the Phoenix, actually deliver all the exposition so the viewers actually understand the entire plot of the story and how everything ties in.
Lathspell said:
Oh, that would be really cool if they expand a bit to show what's going on around the main story. I really want this to be good.
Mega Lops said:
If I can play devils advocate for a sec, I'm not sure how hbo can put this series out when like 1.5-2.5 years happen between their seasons for successful shows. HBO says this will be a 10 year long deal with seasons being actually consecutive but that would be the most ambitious things hbo has ever done.