Harry Potter Casting Rumor: Who might Phoebe Waller-Bridge play in the HBO series?

It seems as though everyone has an opinion on casting for the upcoming HBO adaptation of the Harry Potter series and that;s normal. "Fancasts," or ensembles made up of who fans think should be playing roles, are both fun and commonplace. They're also sometimes wishful thinking, since American Adam Driver would break the casting guideline of using a British cast if he were Severus Snape. Among the rumored names going around is a new addition. Let's take a look at who that is and who she might be depicting.

Who is possibly in line for Petunia Dursley?

JoshWilding of the Comicbookmovie site is the one to post this buzz today and the source is a report from Daniel Richtman at SFFGazette.com. The actress in question is known as a versatile actress, an Emmy-winning writer and producer, and even a voice actress. You might remember her as Helena in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny or Lando's snarky droid copilot L3-37 in Solo: A Star Wars Story. You should know that she wrote the screenplay for the James Bond film No Time To Die as well as 24 episodes of Killing Eve and 12 of Fleabag.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge might be the next Petunia Dursley, nee Evans. Says Wilding, "There was a lot the movies didn't do with the character due to time constraints...[and] it makes sense to turn to an actor of Waller-Bridge's calibre to perhaps flesh her out a little more." Her intensity in some projects is balanced out by a notorious lighter side. After all, according to IMDB's trivia, "She once auditioned for Downton Abbey (2010) and delivered what she felt was a heartfelt performance, but the producers thought she was too funny for the series." She was also reportedly in talks to play the 12th Doctor in Docotr Who, a role that eventually went to Peter Capaldi.

Petunia Dursley, "Harry's hateful aunt," is not as two-dimensional as she was sometimes written in the film series. Yes, she is the person who bitterly described her sister's unnatural abilities in the first film and postured dramatically for dinner guests in the second. In the books, we see her struggling to please both her volatile husband and her chronically petulant son. When Harry is threatened with expulsion in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Petunia makes sure he isn't thrown out of the house. I would personally love to see her in the chapter "A Peck of Owls," in which she and her family are bombarded with letters from witches and wizards in a time of almost comical stress.

As showrunner Francesca Gardiner has said, "We have 8 hours to tell the first book, so we can dig into the real depths nad crevices and how the language of magic can evolve." If this rumor proves true, we can look forward to someone who knows how to convey a full spectrum of characteristics.