Accio Audition! How to Get Cast on HBO’s Harry Potter TV Series

The story follows the titular character, aged 11, as he learns he is a wizard and sets off for his schooling at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. A bullied orphan in the muggle (human) world, Harry finds he holds a mythic, celebrity status among magical people, due to his power over the dark lord, Voldemort, who murdered Harry’s parents and left the trademark lightning-bolt scar on his forehead.

Each school year comes with a new challenge, usually laced with dark magic. Fortunately, Harry has the help of his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, plus the school’s headmaster Professor Dumbledore, to help him restore order.

At the time of writing, cast members are yet to be announced, though the rumour mill is churning, with publications like Variety, GQ, and Deadline all chirping in with suggestions and predictions.

Teen actors Toby Woolf (Rare Beasts, Pistol) and Joshua Pickering (Peter Pan & Wendy, A Discovery of Witches) are rumoured to have been cast as Harry and Ron, respectively, with Bronte Carmichael (Andor, Christopher Robin) reportedly primed to join the trio as Hermione.

There’s been speculation over adult cast members too, with a number of household names reportedly in the running. Acting royalty Mark Rylance is tipped to play Dumbledore, while the internet is very excited at the prospect of Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You) being cast as Professor Snape. 

Both Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe, Bad Sisters) and Rachel Weisz (Black Widow, The Favourite) are rumoured potentials for upright Professor McGonagall, while Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso) is supposedly being eyed for the story’s loveable half-giant Hagrid. And Voldemort? It’s thought the part might be going to Oscar-winner Cillian Murphy, who has shown us through his roles in Peaky Blinders and Batman Begins that he knows a thing or two about playing chilling baddies.

Lucy Bevan (Barbie, The Batman, Belfast) and Emily Brockmann (Belfast, All Is True) are the chief casting directors for Harry Potter. The pair have hit the ground running, reportedly auditioning 32,000 young actors for the parts of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the three months after casting was announced in September 2024. 

As for the rest of the creative team, Francesca Gardiner, whose writing credits include Succession, Killing Eve, and His Dark Materials, is the series’ showrunner, while Mark Mylod, whose directing credits include Succession and Game of Thrones, is its director and an executive producer. Rowling will also serve as an executive producer on the series.

Credit: United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

While it’s believed the leads have now been cast, the team have a job on their hands finding the right actors for other key characters in the series. 

For Harry, Ron, and Hermione, the casting call was open to residents of the UK or Ireland, who would be aged between 9 and 11 years old in April 2025. While the age restrictions may be slightly more relaxed for the trio’s fellow Gryffindor house intake, we imagine they’ll be looking for child actors (and newcomers) in a similar age bracket. Teens and younger children should also keep their eyes peeled for audition announcements; the team will be looking to fill a whole school of Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Slytherins, after all. 

Bevan and Brockmann are committed to “inclusive, diverse casting.” Applicants were asked to submit “qualified performers, without regard to ethnicity, sex, disability, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis protected by law unless otherwise specifically indicated.” Judging by the casting predictions to have surfaced so far, there is also no sense that the pair is looking to cast lookalikes to actors in the original films. 

The UK open casting call asked talent to submit two self-tapes: one reciting a short poem or story unrelated to Harry Potter, and another introducing themself with their date of birth, height, and where they live. Applicants were encouraged to deliver these in their own accents. 

While there will likely be further rounds of casting – particularly for characters who appear later in the series (like Cho Chang, Luna Lovegood, and Cedric Diggory) – it’s thought the casting team will sift through existing audition tapes to cast friends and family members of the leads. Those who submitted a tape to play Ron Weasley, for instance, may end up being cast as another Weasley brother, while a hopeful Hermione could prove the perfect Lavender Brown. Extras, body doubles, and stand-ins, too, could end up being cast from the tapes currently in circulation.

In December 2024, Gardiner and Mylod announced that filming would begin in the summer of 2025 at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, with the first series set to air as soon as 2026.

The first casting call was announced via a post by the studio, linking to a web page on Cast It Talent for “HP Casting.” The page says submissions have now closed, but as the original casting announcement was to find the three leads, there’s nothing to say there won’t be more casting opportunities in future.

It’s always a good idea to tailor your audition to what the casting director is hoping to see. In an interview with the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Bevan revealed that for her, it’s all about “when an actor comes in and they’ve really prepped…. They’ve really thought about it, they’ve got an idea, they’ve got a way of doing it, they’re ready to take direction and make adjustments, I think that’s the really key thing.” While she cautions not to “get locked into some idea” and to “be ready to take direction,” she still believes “the best way to do that is to be prepped.”