HBO has a Harry Potter TV show coming out in 2026 and its announcement of its ideal casting of Albus Dumbledore is very encouraging. The upcoming TV show constitutes a reboot in the Harry Potter franchise, following on from the hugely successful Harry Potter movies. Starting the movie series off in 2001, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone featured Richard Harris as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore. Harris is only the first of a few actors to play Dumbledore, all of which the HBO show may struggle to beat. But the casting news is promising.

Harris played Dumbledore in the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets movie, which was the follow-up to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Sadly, this was Harris’ final Harry Potter movie before his passing away and passing the torch to Michael Gambon, who portrayed Dumbledore brilliantly in the remaining movies. If Harris and Gambon weren’t impressive enough, Jude Law portrayed an exceptional Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies. The Harry Potter TV show has huge shoes to fill, but its Dumbledore dreamcast could do just that.

Why Mark Rylance Would Be A Great Albus Dumbledore

Mark Rylance Has All The Right Credentials For Dumbledore

Variety reported that Warner Bros. Television, who will produce Harry Potter for HBO, is looking to tap Mark Rylance for the Albus Dumbledore role. Rylance would be an incredible Dumbledore. And, in fact, now the prospect of Rylance as Dumbledore has been introduced, it is quite hard to imagine anyone else playing him. Mark Rylance has an agelessness to him – he seems neither young nor old. It is an extraordinary quality in the downturn of his eyes and mouth that anyone who has watched his performances could testify to.

Depth, complexity, and ambivalence are Rylance’s specialties.

Rylance has played the terrifying and the gentle, but he normally walks the fine line between the two. In Bones and All – the profoundly underrated Luca Guadagnino horror drama – Rylance played a solitary vampire who was somehow a kindly old man and a Jeffrey Dahmer-esque serial killer at the same time. Depth, complexity, and ambivalence are Rylance’s specialties. This is further shown by his leading role as Thomas Cromwell in the outstanding BBC drama Wolf Hall. Rylance couldn’t be better positioned to play Dumbledore, the father figure with concealed darkness.

Mark Rylance Is Encouraging For Harry Potter’s TV Remake Casting As A Whole

Rylance Continues A Promising Casting Trend

The HBO Harry Potter show is showing some strong decision-making thus far, as regards casting, and the news of Mark Rylance is the latest update in a hopeful trend. HBO launched an open casting call for the roles of the Golden Trio – Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. This will help the show differentiate itself from the movie series and carve its own path, plus give it the chance to shape its three most important actors into devotees of the show for a number of years. But targeting big names like Rylance for the adult cast is the right choice.

Rylance shows HBO to be seeking British thespians for its Harry Potter cast as the movies did. This wise choice can put actors native to Harry Potter’s home country on the screen, fully embodying the accent, mannerisms, sense of humor, and culture that make Harry Potter what it is. After all, no one nails a British sense of humor quite like the British. Theater backgrounds help these actors into the level of gravitas needed for a fantasy children’s story with hidden depths. The ability to be over the top is just as key as the ability to be nuanced in Harry Potter’s cast, as the books mature as they go.

The Harry Potter Remake’s Adult Cast Is One Of Its Biggest Challenges

It Will Be Hard To Beat The Harry Potter Movies

Child actors don’t reach the same meteoric fame as adult actors, so the casting of Harry Potter’s year group in HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter TV show was never going to be as big a deal as the casting of the adults. The adult cast will define the show at first while its child actors acclimatize to the roles and prove their value. Picking unknowns for some adult roles should be fine, so long as they are flawlessly cast. But the show has to prove its reason for existing, and big names like Mark Rylance could help.

Harry Potter Movie
Release Year

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
2001

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
2002

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2004

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
2005

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2009

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
2010

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
2011

Hiring well-established adult actors to play the professors of Hogwarts and the adult Harry Potter villains will provide the show with a buffer that will help it avoid looking like a downgrade from the movies. Downgrading from the brilliant cast of the Harry Potter movies will make it hard for the show to demonstrate its worth and may lead to poor ratings and viewership and cancelation. In this sense, the TV show faces a tall order in casting its adults, because the vast majority of the movies’ adult roles were perfectly cast. Rylance would be a great start.

Richard Harris, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, and Alan Rickman all present instances of Harry Potter actors who passed away after filming the movies, making it harder for the show to compete with the lasting legend and legacy of their respective characterizations.

Richard Harris, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, and Alan Rickman are all examples of actors from the Harry Potter movies that defined the story. In defining the Harry Potter movies, these actors were the voices of millennials the world over, representing a powerful parable that many grew up with. The Harry Potter TV show has to create something just as era-defining and zeitgeisty as the movies, and it will need all the help it can get. Savvy casting like Mark Rylance will ensure that the Harry Potter TV show passes the test of season 1 with flying colors.