This past Friday celebrated JK Rowling's and her character, Harry Potter's birthday. In honor of them, and the imminent arrival of the HBO Harry Potter Series, I decided to sit down and discuss the highly debated topic raging across the internet - The Mysterious Case of Severus Snape
When I heard that HBO, with Rowling's support, intended to make TV show adaptation of the Harry Potter books, confusion overwhelmed me. A reboot so soon? What about the Hogwarts founders? What about the Marauders?
Upon hearing Rowling's interest in a faithful adaptation. I got behind that. It made sense. The films could only do so much in terms of getting the stories across accurately. Though I had my fingers crossed that they wouldn't make Hermione black for the sake of racial representation and diversity as every other major franchise has done - Annabeth (Percy Jackson) and Astrid (How to Train Your Dragon).
Hermione has been left more or less untouched, but I will get back on this. They did this for Snape, instead. Why? There answer is that they didn't want override what Alan Rickman has done with the character. Do I believe them? No, not really, no. It feels more like a checkbox item.
Now, I can't trust them to be entirely faithful to the adaptation. There is nothing against in casting someone else for artistic license and creativity, and I have nothing against the actor. But they promised the fans that they will remain faithful to the books. Also, choosing Snape brings up points many fans have brought to attention. Not only does the casting choice for Snape not follow through with the descriptions of Snape in the books, but it also holds another disgusting racial image knowing what Snape endured later down the road. When James bullies Snape, it will now appear racist then simply a boy bullying another boy for the usual cases bullying would occur. I am not saying James bullying Snape is okay, but the normal circumstances that arise from bullying will now have horrid angle of racism that is not needed.
True, Harry Potter is filled with themes of racism, but it uses a fresh angle on it through muggle-born witches and wizards.
Turning to Hermione, they cast someone who is multi-racial, which is totally fine, but now with the Snape casting, and knowing Hermione's own journey into dealing with the magical world's discrimination problems, it adds an unexpected layer that may to be as faithful of adaptation we might be hoping for.
Now, I am not saying I am against diverse casting, but diverse casting has to be done right and not sloppy. If choosing to race swap a Harry Potter character, I would probably choose Professor Sprout, Professor Flitwick, Argus Filch, or Remus Lupin (Though I would struggle due to getting used to the original casting for the films, but I can manage through them because I know racial representation is important).
Please share your opinions down below. I look forward in engaging in clean, healthy discussions.
