No, the new Harry Potter TV show has not confirmed its cast yet

Potterheads around the globe are keeping a close ear to any news about the upcoming Harry Potter TV show on HBO, and social media is now in a frenzy over rumored castings. Does this alleged cast list have any truth to it, or has someone just made it up online? Well, we're here to debunk this rumor. There's no evidence to believe the new series has cast any of the characters yet. Don't trust everything you see on Facebook and X!

Reports began coming out in 2021 that Warner Bros. would be revisiting the Wizarding World with a series spanning 10 years, though it wasn't until 2023 that HBO confirmed the news. Emmy Award winner Francesca Gardiner will serve as showrunner, with Emmy Award winner Mark Mylod signed on to direct episodes. It's true that the show is coming together, but there have been no confirmed castings at the time of this writing.

Will the new Harry Potter show star Jamie Campbell Bower, Peter Capaldi, others?

There have been multiple casting rumors going around since the Harry Potter show was announced, and the latest one claims multiple big names have signed on. It originated from a fan Facebook page called RuPaul's Drag Race Family, which has no affiliation with the reality TV show. We're not sure why this page is sharing Harry Potter rumors, but here we are. You can see the post in question below, which has been screenshotted and shared multiple times all over different social media platforms:

According to this false Facebook post, child actors Toby Woolf (Pistol), Joshua Pickering (A Discovery of Witches), and Bronte Carmichael (Christopher Robin) are "rumored" to be cast as Harry, Ron, and Hermione, respectively. The post goes on to allege that Lesley Manville has been cast as Minerva McGonagall, Peter Capaldi as Albus Dumbledore, Kristian Nairn as Rubeus Hagrid, Angus Imrie as Professor Quirell, Edward Bluemel as Severus Snape, Lucy David as Aunt Petunia, and Jamie Campbell Bower as Voldemort. While this cast would certainly be awesome, we can confirm it is false.

There is always a chance that these actors could be considered or even cast eventually, but because there are no casting announcements made from Warner Bros. yet, we can assume this Facebook post is 100% fake and just a tactic to create engagement. It's certainly worked, as the post has 17,000 shares and over 9,000 comments at the time of this writing.

Another reason we know the post is fake is that it claims to include a "first look" with a "brand new logo." Well, this alleged logo calls the Harry Potter show a "Max Original," which is not accurate. Though Warner Bros. initially announced the series would premiere on Max, it was later reported that it switched to an HBO Original. The Facebook post also calls the series "HBO MAX's Harry Potter," but HBO Max does not exist anymore.

The only part about the fake poster that might be true is the 2026 date. But that has not been confirmed yet. HBO CEO Casey Bloys already shared that the Harry Potter show would premiere in 2026 or 2027. The "fall 2026" timeframe mentioned in the Facebook post is made up.

Considering we heard that Warner Bros. was preparing to hold open casting calls for the roles of Harry, Ron, and Hermione just last month, we don't believe the Golden Trio has been cast yet. According to the Cast It website, which is hosting the auditions, the casting call is open until Oct. 31, 2024.

Again, any elements of this rumored casting and timeframe could end up becoming true, but we know it's not the case just yet. When Warner Bros. does confirm these details, we'll be sure to report on it as soon as possible.

Keep up with the latest Harry Potter news here at Wizards and Whatnot.