Should Snape, Lupin, and Sirius have been younger in the Harry Potter movies?

Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, and David Thewlis were amazing as Snape, Sirius, and Lupin, but were they actually too old for the Harry Potter characters? Should the movies have cast someone young for each role?

We all love Alan Rickman’s Snape in the Harry Potter movies. There’s no way we could even imagine someone else playing that role. Gary Oldman and David Thewlis also became Sirius and Lupin, bringing the characters to life. But looking back, is it possible that the actors were actually too old for the characters? Did the movies forget the timeline for the sake of having well-known actors in the important roles?

Technically, they were too old. They were all actors in their 40s and 50s, playing characters in their 30s. While actors playing roles younger or older than them isn’t unheard of, the characters looked older than they should have been. However, there may be arguments for the aging.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc

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The wizarding wars would have aged people

Let’s not deny that the world of Harry Potter was a difficult one. While there was a temporary peace, the characters had been through the First Wizard War. This would have put immense strain on the characters, so looking decades older than they were wouldn’t too difficult to believe.

Plus, Sirius and Lupin went through strain that others never had.

Let’s look at Sirius first. He’d been a prisoner in Azkaban for a decade. While many prisoners wouldn’t age someone so much, this wizard prison certainly would. The dementors were there as guards, causing fear and insanity to all the inmates. Plus, it’s not like human (or wizard) rights were protected for inmates. This wasn’t a prison protected by EU law! So, basic rights like food and water could have been scarce, putting the inmates’ bodies under more pressure than anyone on the outside.

Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc

The body would have aged. Sirius would have looked decades older, so having Oldman in the role made sense.

Then there’s Lupin, who went through a decade without his best friends; the only people who truly accepted him for who he was. Lupin’s story is heartbreaking. He went through a decade mourning the loss of three best friends while believing the fourth had been the one killing everyone. He was living in poverty, alone and depressed, fighting a disease that was the wizarding world’s version of HIV.

It wouldn’t be surprising to hear that he’d aged considerably. Having Thewlis, who was in his early 40s at the time of playing the role, wasn’t too unrealistic. Looking a decade older than he was made perfect sense.

Snape didn’t quite fit, but do we care?

Image Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc

As for Snape, having Rickman taking on the role may have just been to put another big name to the Harry Potter movies. Out of the three characters, he was the one who wouldn’t have aged as much. While working as a double agent and the Potions Professor would have been hard, it wouldn’t have been enough to cause substantial aging—we’re talking two decades here.

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But would we have had Snape any other way? Honestly, Rickman was everything I imagined Snape as in the books. He embodied that character to a tee and there is no way anyone would have done it more justice than him.

Plus, this could have been Harry’s view of Snape. Haven’t we all imagined our teachers way older than they really are? Especially the ratchety, awful ones, right? It’s hard to imagine some as being just a couple of decades older than us at the time of being in school, so they must have been in their 40s and 50s the whole time.

Next: 7 Severus Snape facts you might not be aware of

Do you think the actors were too old for their roles in the Harry Potter movies? Did it bother you that much? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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