New Harry Potter rumor hints Voldemort will arrive earlier than fans thought

Production on the first season of the Harry Potter TV series is officially underway. Warner Bros. and HBO have revealed most of the cast of the first season. There are a few major characters yet to be cast, none bigger than Lord Voldemort.

A new Harry Potter rumor gaining momentum among fans hints that the actor playing Voldemort has already been cast and Warner Bros. is just keeping it a secret. The rumor also alleges that Voldemort will appear multiple times in the first season, which is far sooner than fans expected to see the character.

The rumor comes from @TheDailyHPotter on X, and it has not been confirmed by anyone at Warner Bros. or HBO publicly, but it makes a lot of sense for a few reasons.

First, some of the actors mentioned to be in the running to play Voldemort are some of the biggest actors in the game right now. Cillian Murphy was rumored to be under consideration. We've also heard Tom Hiddleston could be in the mix, but nothing is official until it's official. Warner Bros. and HBO will definitely want to make a splash. There's been a lot of news and first looks for the Harry Potter series shared lately, so holding out on announcing Voldemort to make a bigger deal about it makes a lot of sense from a PR perspective.

If they can hold out all the way until the series premieres in 2027, which was just confirmed this week, that would be the biggest splash possible.

It's also interesting that Voldemort will appear in the first season of the Harry Potter series at all until the very end. Of course, we've all read and watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. We know that we get a few small glimpses of Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest and the back of Professor Quirrell's head at the very end of the story. Remember, the first book and movie begin with Harry Potter being dropped off by Professor Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, and Rubeus Hagrid at the Dursleys as a baby. Voldemort has vanished at that point. We don't actually see him again until Harry goes into the Forbidden Forest a little more than halfway through the story.

There's a lot of room for the Harry Potter series to work backward, starting, potentially, before Harry's parents were killed and Voldemort vanished. There are also 11 years, basically between sightings of Voldemort, and there's a lot to explore regarding his introduction to Quirrell and how that relationship developed.

So, if this rumor is true, Voldemort might be a much bigger part of the Harry Potter series, at least in the early part of this story, than he ever was in the books or movies.

We don't really meet Voldemort, aside from a few important moments, until the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, so it will be really interesting to see just how big of a role Voldemort has early in the series.

Stay tuned for more news about the first season of Harry Potter coming to HBO and HBO Max in 2027.

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