John Lithgow Explains His Harry Potter Preparation For Albus Dumbledore

At this point, John Lithgow is the only member of the cast officially confirmed for HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter reboot. The Emmy Award winner is set to play Professor Albus Dumbledore. His casting has excited Muggles worldwide, and Lithgow is now starting to put in the work to be as prepared as possible to take on this iconic role.

HBO’s Harry Potter is expected to begin filming in the summer of 2025 at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, the same location as the

original movies. The first season of the show is set to be released toward the end of 2026 or early 2027, which is why Lithgow is now coming to grips with the Hogwarts headteacher and what his role will entail.

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Lithgow recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the role and what he’s expecting from it, “The overall concept of this entire reboot of Harry Potter is an entire season is devoted to a single novel.” He admitted that he’s “halfway through the second” novel right now as he looks to learn as much about the story as possible. But when it comes to how long he will be filming for, he said, “I honestly don’t know. I mean, I was over in England for eight months for The Crown and barely came back [to the U.S.]. I think I may have come back once or twice. I imagine that I can come back much more. You know, Dumbledore is — he’s kind of the nuclear weapon. He only goes on very, very occasionally. I don’t think it’s gonna be that hard a job, and we’ll just go back and forth.”

Lithgow might not expect the role itself to be difficult to play, but the former Dexter villain has already experienced just how big the fandom of Harry Potter is. He explained, “Can you believe this has already started? The deal was only set, like, 48 hours ago, and in airports two weeks ago, somehow or other, people had gotten wind of this, and they were stopping me.”

So far, no other actor has been officially cast, although HBO has been holding auditions for the lead trio: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, who are all crucial to the story. Elsewhere, it is widely believed that Paapa Essiedu is being considered for Severus Snape, while Ozark star Jane McTeer is reportedly in talks with HBO about taking on the role of Minerva McGonagall.

Hiring Lithgow was a bold decision, considering he’s an American actor, which is something that the original movies didn’t do, particularly for significant roles such as this. However, HBO is looking to ensure their version of Harry Potter will stand out and feel unique, and these casting decisions are certainly doing that. It’s unknown if Lithgow will be the only American in the cast, and he is expected to put on a British accent either way. However, adding him to Harry Potter certainly got a lot of people talking and a buzz going for the show, which made it a meaningful decision before shooting had even begun.

Harry Potter

Showrunner

Francisca Gardiner

Directors

Mark Mylod

Franchise(s)

Harry Potter

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  John Lithgow

  Albus Dumbledore