Potterheads around the world have been waiting with baited breath for the release of cast details for the upcoming West End play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Rather than casting the original actors themselves, or attempting to find performers with a similar ‘look’, the production team have branched out for the three leads.
Harry Potter will be played by Jamie Parker, of History Boys fame.
Paul Thornley, who was in the 2012 film adaption of Les Miserables, will play Ron Weasley.
And Hermione Granger will be played by Noma Dumezweni.
Dumezweni is a multi-Olivier Award winning actress who was born in Swaziland. Her casting is causing some what of a stir, due to the glaring departure from the Hermione we’ve come to know, Emma Watson.
And what a wonderful departure it is.
Hermione’s character, with her muggle-born lineage, is repeatedly marginalised by the wider wizarding community. She is labelled a ‘mudblood’, and looked down upon by her peers and teachers alike, all because of her biology.
Hermione is called a ‘filthy little mudblood’:
Alanna Bennet wrote eloquently for Buzzfeed about how despite the connection she felt to the intelligent, ‘bossy’, frizzy-haired witch, as a woman of colour, she never felt she could be her.
“In middle school, when I was confronting that there were people out there who’d call me “n****r,” I thought back to Hermione being called “mudblood” and harassed by teacher and students alike,” writes Bennett.
Despite the fact that Hermione’s appearance is primarily described in relation to her ‘frizzy’ hair and her teeth, Bennett always saw her as white, an image further cemented by the films:
Top Comments
I'm not going to lie, this will ruin Harry Potter for me in so many ways. Please don't. When you have something perfect, why screw it up.
You could maybe try and think about it as changing your perceptions, rather than than ruin, that could make you feel better about it. Or see the play as another medium that has the right to change things around. Don't let it ruin the rest of HP for you, that would be awful.
Why will it ruin it? What is the problem with a woman with black skin playing Hermione, exactly?
I don't like the thought of them re-casting any of the characters. The characters and actors who played them are perfect as they are.
It's not a continuation of the movie, it's a play based on a continuation of the books, set in the future and the characters are now a lot older than the actors who played them in movie (who probably don't want to do a play, anyway). And, as these characters started in the books and it's a new medium, who did and didn't play them in the movie is irrelevant.
I've read some pretty stupid comments surrounding this. JK never said if Hermione was white or black and the fact that people are kicking up a fuss about the actress being black goes to show how stupidly racist the world still is.
Completely agree, however, JK never had an issue with a white actress playing the character for ALL 8 movies, now they are changing her to a black actress. Doesn't make sense to me at all. Each to their own though, I'm not going to get outraged on social media about it LOL I'm sure if they changed Harry Potter to Harriet Potter, there would be similar outrage LOL
It's not carrying on from the movies, it's a continuation of the book series, so it doesn't matter who played Hermione in the movies, they can cast this stage play however they like.
It's also nothing like changing the genders of the characters.