Warning: this article contains spoilers for the 1997 children’s novel Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
The actor for Voldemort in HBO Max’s upcoming reboot of the Harry Potter franchise will be kept secret until the series premieres, according to report obtained by Comicbook’s Simon Gallagher. The eternal nemesis of aspiring wizard Potter and his friends, originally portrayed by Ralph Fiennes (Conclave, The Menu) in the octology of films that first adapted the book series in the 2000s, has supposedly already been cast, as claimed by an anonymous source earlier this week.
The anonymous insider stated “that Voldemort is already cast and will appear in several episodes, but HBO has no plans of announcing his casting and want to keep him secret until the season airs,” according to Comicbook. “Whether or not they’ll succeed, remains to be seen. After all, this will be the most sought-after piece of information about this series.”
Ardent fans of the Harry Potter novels might also notice that the insider’s claim of Voldemort’s appearance in season one of the HBO series would mark a noted departure from the original Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone novel, where the Dark Lord (spoilers) only manifests as a tumor-like presence on the back of Professor Quirinus Quirrell’s head. Since actor Luke Thalion (Present Laughter, A Room With A View) has already been announced as Quirrell, it seems unlikely that the two characters will share a voice as they did in the 2001 movie — but if this is the case, where else will Voldemort appear?
The same insider proclaimed (via Comicbook) that each season of the Harry Potter series, which will each adapt one of controversial author J.K. Rowling’s original novels, will consist of six episodes. Should the report prove true, wizards everywhere will just have to wait until the series premieres in 2027 to find out where exactly the serpentine scalp of the Wizarding World’s greatest nightmare will appear — and who will be wearing it.