While it should be cause for celebration when actors get cool roles, for Black British actor Papaa Essiedu and the recent news about his iconic new Harry Potter casting, it’s unfortunately causing a lot of controversy. And you probably won’t be surprised when we tell you why.
As teased by Deadline over the weekend, Essiedu is reportedly finalizing the details to take on the character of Professor Severus Snape in the upcoming Harry Potter series, slated to premiere on HBO in 2026. And though that seems fine and dandy on the service, fans of the franchise have been in a serious tizzy over the announcement for a myriad of reasons—chief among them: his race.
In the books and films, Snape, a professor at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was a 30-something, unattractive professor who had “greasy black hair, cold black eyes, sallow skin, a large, hooked nose, yellow and uneven teeth” and more.
Based off optics alone, it’s hard to imagine how Hollywood could turn someone as attractive as Essiedu into the morbidly described character when he is aesthetically so far removed. Snape was also an infamous bully and anti-hero who held thoughts and beliefs and performed behaviors equivalent to that of a Wizard KKK member, which further makes this casting such a confusing choice.
With that knowledge, it’s hard for some fans of the franchise to imagine how certain storylines and motivations will play out now that the race of this character has been changed and they took to social media to express their displeasure.
“Making Snape a black man is one of the worst things ever. One of the many fictional characters that should’ve stayed white,” wrote one user.
“The wizard warriors are about to dig up slurs we haven’t heard since the 1800s. a cataclysmic misstep from his team. there’s nothing good that could ever come from having a black actor play an infamous bully like snape, not in this digital fandom climate,” said another.
Noted one other user, “It’s a NO for me as black girl who grew up loving HP this is not the casting. Snape was a death eater. Think about him being a Black Death eating think about it.”
“This is so exceptionally stupid. Please stop with the race swapping of everything for the sake of diversity. In the case of Snape, making him black literally changes the subtext of his entire story!,” said another.
However, there were some who are looking forward to how Essiedu breathes life into this new iteration of Snape and hoped that HBO would be pulling out all the stops to keep the young actor from enduring incessant racism from the die-hard fanbase.
“Im like in agony over this Snape casting, because now a talented black actor has been handed a project no one wants and will be at the brunt of racist harassment all for a show that will be forgotten and cancelled after 2 seasons in the best case scenario,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.
Added another, “Hope the network and studios are prepared to protect that Black actor playing Snape…”