The Harry Potter HBO series has been all over the place when it comes to casting choices from the decent Dumbledore pick, John Lithgow, to the baffling Snape pick, the too-handsome Paapa Essiedu. Now? It’s about to cast an actor who is a slam-dunk for the role he’s heading toward.
That would be Nick Frost as the new Hagrid, the famed groundskeeper and key player in especially the early parts of the series. Frost is best-known for his roles in the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg comedies Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End. Even though that last one was over a decade ago now, Frost has been in loads of projects since then, including doing a lot of voicework for animated endeavors.
Arriving as Hagrid would be his biggest role possibly ever, given the attention that this controversial, but no doubt widely-watched series will have on Max/HBO when it does arrive. Unlike Lithgow, potentially, if the show runs a decade Frost, currently 52, will not age out of it.
The original actor in the role of Hagrid for all the films was Robbie Coltrane, who sadly passed away in 2022, albeit no doubt he would not have returned, given that this looks to be a 100% new cast. But he did an excellent job and was a beloved part of those films. We’ll see if Frost can live up, as perfect as his casting may seem.
The biggest question, of course, is who will play the central trio of Harry, Hermione and Ron, though like the original movies, the goal is to find unknown, young actors for those parts, so it’s not going to be anyone you’ve ever heard of. It’s an immense amount of pressure, so hopefully they will be okay, whoever is cast. The other big part yet to be cast will be that of Voldemort, previously played by Ralph Fiennes, who has endorsed Cillian Murphy for the role, albeit there is nothing to indicate that is actually happening, or if he’s interested in being locked into that part for the next decade of his career, recent Oscar-winner and all.
I would not expect this show to release before 2027, nor do I expect it to take any less than seven seasons, maybe more, given how long the books get. This is an era where at best, it usually takes 1.5-2 years in between seasons of even not big shows, so this? I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say we’ll be seeing this air into the late 2030s if it doesn’t end up cancelled. But I think WB is going to be pot-committed to this one no matter what.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
