News: Harry Potter is Getting a T.V. Show…I’m Worried.

In a world of constant remakes, adaptations, prequels, sequels, and few original stories, I foolishly never thought that the massively successful Harry Potter franchise would be getting a remake. I mean, the entire series has already been adapted into eight awesome movies. It did not need to be rebooted into a T.V. show to be made better like the Percy Jackson movies needed to be (and we’ve seen how that’s gone…terribly). However, back in April of last year, it was announced that Harry Potter was getting a T.V. show that was going to be streaming on HBO. I’ve stayed quiet about this announcement for this long because not much was known about it at the time other than the fact that the very controversial J.K. Rowling was going to be helping work on it. However, this week some more info came out about and it’s time to comment on the projected race-swap of the character Severus Snape, and what I think the show might look like going forward. Let’s get into it.

My main worry about the show is that, while HBO and Warner Bros seem to be pretty tolerant of J.K. Rowling’s stance on the trans issue, I think that they’re still going to force Rowling to put in some of their woke diversity politics. Already we’re seeing this in how they’re considering Paapa Essiedu to play the role of Professor Severus Snape, the angsty, often abusive potions professor that Potterheads everywhere love.

Now, is this something that’s absolutely terrible? Will it totally change the show?

Personally, I don’t think it will. Snape is still a secondary character despite the role he plays later. I don’t see this as being as drastic as changing the race of a main character, like what we’ve seen with Annabeth, Thalia, Luke, and Grover in the new Percy Jackson adaptation. Furthermore, in my opinion, no one that they choose to cast for the role of Professor Snape could properly fill the shoes left behind by Alan Rickman.

However, the reason why this is so concerning is because of the precedent it’s setting for the rest of the show. In today’s world, despite the growing push-back against DEI agenda, Hollywood seems to still be hiring (or not hiring) based on race, even if the character is from somewhere like Scandanavia in the 8-9th century (like we’ve seen with the live-action HTTYD movie coming out next year). It’s one thing to hire someone despite their race because of their talent. Samuel L. Jackson played Nick Fury in the Avengers franchise, and no one cared that Fury was originally white because Jackson did such an amazing job as that character. But hiring someone just to tic a diversity box is ridiculous, and that’s the feeling that I’m unfortunately getting with this potential casting decision because it’s Hollywood in 2024. It makes me worry that more race swaps are to come just for the sake of impressing the “modern audience” which only consists of a few Leftists on TikTok and in the writers’ room.

Making everyone Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native American or whatever isn’t White does not make you seem diverse and inclusive. In fact, it actually makes you look like the actual racist because you’re hiring them for their skin color and often not their talent, then using them as a scapegoat for when the audience calls you out for this by crying “Racism!”

All in all, I’m still cautiously hopeful about this show, mostly because J.K. Rowling is helping and hopefully won’t sell out like Rick Riordan did. Hopefully, she’ll keep the show as close to the books as possible and won’t let the writers destroy the characters.

Until next time,

M.J.