Comparing The Original Harry Potter Cast To Cursed Child

We look over the full cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and see how they measure up to the original characters in the Harry Potter series.

Today marks the day that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child goes into the preview period of the show, where the play is performed and tweaked in front of audiences ahead of the final opening. Last week, as the final round of hype for the play’s first audiences, the production released three rounds of photographs of the eight leading roles of the production. They included:

• Harry and Ginny Potter and their middle child Albus (neither older son James Potter nor younger daughter Lily were shown.)
• Ron Weasley, Hemione Granger and their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley (Their younger son, Hugo Granger-Weasley was not pictured.)
• Draco Malfoy and his son Scorpius (Draco’s wife Astoria was not pictured.)

What to make of these pictures? And how do they match up against the images that were seared into our collective psyches by eight rounds of movies all of whom had the same actors playing those roles for over a decade? We consider that, and this new round of actors that include Harry Potter: The Next Generation.

Next: Jamie Parker as Harry Potter

Jaime Parker as Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived

The last time we heard from Harry Potter in the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2, we were told all was well. And from what we have been given to understand, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Part 1 is going to pick up and recreate that same moment from the film. But have you seen the look on Parker’s face? All does not look so well for him right now.

The scar may not pain him, but the last nineteen years of life has. We’ve always wondered if Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, wound up with a raging case of PTSD–or worse, survivor’s guilt–after the events of the seven novels. It’s looking like even if he didn’t allow himself to ever really see it that way, they’ve left their own scars on the inside.

Comparing him to Radcliffe in the final move was an interesting exercise. When Parker was first cast, I wasn’t sure this would work. When I saw the glimpse of him in the backstage video I was more hopeful though–something about the hair sticking up in that semi-uncontrolled way seemed just so right. But the dying of his hair black, the scar and the glasses really do put everything into place. Some might argue that they can’t see Radcliffe aging into Parker, but I can.

Next: Poppy Miller as Ginny Potter, nee Weasley

Poppy Miller as Ginny Potter, nee Weasley

The moment I saw Poppy Miller’s headshot, I knew she was Ginny. I just did. That she had the most impressive resume of the non-character assigned cast (and actually bigger than Paul Thornley’s) I was like there is no way this is not our Ginny.

A few details did throw me when we finally saw her last week–and it was mostly the haircut. Miller’s headshot had her with a haircut that was not that far off from the one that Bonnie Wright wore during the Potter movies, which was part of why the resemblance was so obvious.

It’s a little amusing that by aging Miller into a look of a middle aged Ginny that they actually made her look less like the original Ginny, especially with the matronly bob. But we forget–Ginny is a matron now. She has three children, two of whom are already at Hogwarts, and a third itching to go too. She’s the wife of a ministry official, and a respectable one at that. Moreover, she is also a sportswriter for The Daily Prophet--and she had a good length career as a part of the Hollyhead Harpies. A short haircut makes sense.

Speaking of which, wow is the resemblance of her and Wright right on the nose. No one can complain here.

Next: Paul Thornley as Ronald Weasley

Paul Thornley as Ronald Weasley

I’ve already heard the quibbles about Thornley since he was first cast. People complained he was too thin, too tall, not a ginger, you name it. This is probably because the movies didn’t do right by Ron Weasley, and so fans are a little protective of him. Personally, I thought Ron would be far more balding than this at age 40. No, Arthur wasn’t bald, but the gene goes through the mother, and if you look at the two actors cast as Molly’s older brothers (the Prewetts) in the original members photo in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, both of them are in various stages of losing their hair.

But no matter! Ron was somehow lucky, and even managed not to lose all of his gingerness to grey as well. (Though he has definitely faded.) As for comparing him to Rupert Grint at the end of the Deathly Hallows movies, that’s almost unfair. After all Ron is *supposed* to be tall and gangly. The problem for the movies is that Grint didn’t properly sprout the way they hoped when he hit puberty, and in fact, by the end of the series had wound up far more barrel chested than the character ever was supposed to be. If anything, Thornley hews far better to the book version of the character than the movie one. Perhaps we can hope he’ll be allowed to be more of his intelligent self that the movies took away?

Next: Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger

Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger

Stop. Stop right now. Don’t even. If you are here to make racist remarks, or even veiled microaggression type snide asides like how you just can’t *image* a black woman in the role after seeing a white one playing her, or that this is somehow disrespectful to Watson, or any of that utter junk nonsense, leave.

Now, with that out of the way!

No matter what you were expecting when you saw Dumezweni in this role, to me, she is an utter revelation as Hermione. Hermione was always the type to be both aggressively competent to the point of intimidation. But the no-nonsense confidence she exudes just looking at the camera is beyond expectations. As Dumezweni herself said during the interview where this picture was release: the first time she was put into costume make up and hair, she said “Ah, there you are.” Ah, there you are indeed, ma’am.

As for the comparison to Watson, what strikes me is the attitude. Both of them embody Hermione’s spirit in the exact same body language–and there were so many pictures of Watson in this stance as older Hermione, especially for Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows. The character is indeed in good hands.

Next: Sam Clemmetts as Albus Severus Potter

Sam Clemmetts as Albus Severus Potter

This is probably one of those places where the movie’s epilogue screwed with my expectations. When I was looking at the actors trying to identify Albus, I looked at all the younger kids, thinking of the very young boy they cast opposite Radcliffe in order to help emphasis the age difference. But with an actual 40 something playing Potter, that was no longer necessary, and the show cast up accordingly.

Sam Clemmett is actually 22, but he looks about 13-14 in this photo–I contrasted him against Radcliffe at that age. Seeing him as 11 might take a big more imagination than one might get in a  movie version, but such are the rules of the stage.

All that being said, the comparison to Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is an interesting one. despite the age difference, one wouldn’t know that Clemmett is actually ten years older than Radcliffe in these photos, and though his face is rounder and he looks perhaps more like a Weasley than a Potter (especially Molly if you think about it), that might help with the idea that he’s not taking after his father in a way that Harry had hoped.

Next: Cherrelle Skeete as Rose Granger-Weasley

Cherrelle Skeete as Rose Granger-Weasley

Can I just start with how happy I am about this? Like *so* happy? One of the things that drives me the maddest about theater is when they do “color-blind” casting (like Sophie Okonedo as Queen Margaret in The Hollow Crown on BBC last month) but then do not follow through with the children. Seriously, theater people. You give yourself this big wide opening when casting one actor of color as someone’s mother or father, but then do not take advantage of it when casting their children, basically destroying any sense of believability, and making the casting stick out unnecessarily.

So to see that the Cursed Child production not only cast a woman of color as Hermione, but then followed through by casting her daughter as black as well brought my heart joy. And though I have heard a few complaints that she looks darker than they’d like in this photo, again, the refusal to cast light skinned actresses is one that I stand up and applaud.

Like with Clemmett, I compared Skeete to the age she appears to be, not her true age (which, like Clemmett is mid twenties.) What amused me was that she and Watson really exude the same gleeful and knowing look towards the camera in these too pictures–though young Hermione is laden with books, and young Rose merely has her wand, they both look as if they are confident in who they are, and someone you’d want to be friends with for life.

Next: Alex Price as Draco Malfoy

Alex Price as Draco Malfoy

There was an idea, especially in the movies that Draco had somehow rehabilitated by the end of the series. When Harry saw him across the train station platform saying goodbye to little Scorpius in the epilogue, there was a level of respect and understanding that was exchanged between them in the moemnt they looked at each other. But it’s obvious from Price’s pose that in our new story, the character is once again here as a foil to Harry. He has the same sort of hair as his father Lucius once did (albeit with a fancy twist in the back.)

An amusing point of comparison–in order to find a sneering image of Draco Malfoy from the movies, I had to go back to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. All of Tom Felton’s posed pictures for the final Deathly Hallows movies had him standing arms loose, or looking otherwise slightly lost, like a leaf on the wind of fate. To find a perfect match for the pose Price is in, I had to go all the way back, to the very first Harry Potter film, when, with Voldemort still just mostly a name from the past, Draco was Harry’s ultimate nemesis.

With Voldemort now once more just a name in the past, it looks like Draco might once again be in that role.

Next: Anthony Boyle as Scorpius Malfoy

Anthony Boyle as Scorpius Malfoy

Our final character comparison in Scorpius Malfoy, the boy who would be Albus’ nemesis, as a corollary to Draco as Harry’s nemesis. Or is he?

Once again, it should be noted that Boyle, like Clemmett is cast upwards from the movie’s Scorpius. Though the show has confirmed at this point that the first scene sees Albus and Scorpius all on their way to Hogwarts for the first time, this “11 year old” is going to have to stretch our imaginations, since at 23, Boyle, at his youngest couldn’t pass for less than a third year student.

But that’s not the only reason we’ve matched him against Felton from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. As we noted above, the first two years of the Harry Potter movies see Felton’s official photos with the actor standing in the pose held by Price above. That body language and Scorpius’ here would not only be strikingly different, but would only highlight how different the characters are. Scorpius looks a little bent, as if under the weight of expectations of the Malfoy name, and a bit diffident about having to bear them–a look we don’t fully see from Felton until close to the end of the movie series, but we start to here, as the we edge closer to Voldemort’s return. In fact, Scorpius looks a bit like we think Albus must feel–trying to bear up under the weight and expectations of the generation before.

Perhaps in truth, he, Albus and Rose could be fast friends? Maybe even the next generation of Golden Trio? Only time, and the spoilers that leak forth from this week’s previews, will tell.

Next: On The Subject of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Spoilers

What do you think of the new Harry Potter cast? Are they everything you’d hoped? Sound off below.