Paapa Essiedu has been cast, according to several reports (see here and here) to play Severus Snape in the Bronte Studio adaptation of the HarryPotter novels for HBO+ television. The accomplished Shakespearean actor has played some of the most demanding roles in theatre repertoire to critical acclaim and successfully worked in films and television as well.
But there’s a hitch in this casting decision. Essiedu is black. Unlike the casting of a black actress to play Hermione Granger, which was defended as being canonical because the character was not described explicitly as being white [correction in comments!], Severus Snape is famously “sallow skinned,” a yellowish, unhealthy condition almost exclusively of Caucasians.
I woke up to this announcement as a virtual parliament of owls with messages from Potter Pundits flew through my chimney grate bemoaning the casting choice. “Another ‘Black Hermione’,” “The series is doomed,” “Every character that hates Snape will seem like a racist,” “What are they thinking? Isn’t Rowling being a transphobe bad enough — does she have to make the sadist Death Eater a black man, too?” etc.
I get all that (except for the ‘Rowling is a transphobe’ bit) and I’m not a fan of color-casting as a rule, especially when it is obviously more than just a little bit about generating clicks and fandom interest in the new shows.
But —
If Black Severus proves to be a reality — and I have to think it will — then it is not a poorly thought through choice, it won’t necessarily make the heroes into racists for hating Snape, and it solves several problems the Bronte Studios rebooters face. It’s also much more in the traditions of American filmmaking than, say, Black Hermione was, which Cursed Child casting was pure tokenism and click-bait.
The Rebooted Harry Potter adaptation for television has quite the uphill battle to win the hearts of global fandom. Three obstacles that come immediately to mind are
- the continued popularity of the Warner Brothers big screen adaptations (everyone in the world except JKR now ‘sees’ the characters as the movie stars who played them),
- the need to do something different from canon and prior adaptations that will not require re-writing the stories (there has to be a reason to watch the new shows, something that makes them ‘new’ in a way that isn’t just currency), and
- the Everest the marketing team must summit, the Trans War association of the Author with ‘Far Right’ or ‘Anti-Progressive’ ideas, stigmata really.
‘Black Severus’ lifts the teevee adaptations over all these hurdles that have to be cleared for the show to excite fans around the world.
First, there’s the Rickman legacy. The actor who played Severus in the first films was much beloved and is now dead, which is to say, bereaved and sacrosanct, above criticism and irreplaceable. This is true for all the characters whose screen versions were played by people now departed, I think immediately of McGonagall and Hagrid, but especially for the Potions Master because of the anti-hero role he plays in the series. Minerva and Rubeus were always good guys; Severus was until the very end a great mystery.
How can any actor win the hearts and sympathy of fandom with the legacy of Alan Rickman hanging over him? Cf., fandom feelings for Michael Gambon who replaced Richard Harris, which caused many to cheer at his death in the Half-Blood Prince film finale.
The solution to the Rickman Hurdle, beyond choosing an actor with the chops and credentials that Essiedu has, is to make HBO+ Severus a ‘Magical Negro,,’ a real commonplace in American fiction and movie history.
In a single stroke of color-casting, the new Snape becomes an outcast whom the viewing audience will see as both unfairly oppressed and worthy of their sympathies, however odious his behaviors. Those behaviors become somehow understandable rather than just psychopathic sadism. The actor cannot be compared to Rickman (well, he will be, of course, but he cannot be hated qua usurper as he would otherwise be), the played race-card gives the series a signature new dynamic because of the whiff of racism any dislike of the character generates, and it is such a PC move, again of tokenism, one though that will win Woke hearts. It will rally the progressive fan base to his defense as Black Hermione did in the Cursed Child stage play, which to a degree deflates the ‘Rowling as Transphobe Bigot’ bugaboo balloon.
Rather than being another reason to think the Bronte/HBO+ adaptation will fail, Black Severus is the first sign I’ve seen that the producers and director understand the uphill fight they’re in. Black Severus, frankly, much as I’d prefer a straight forward adaptation of the books without considerations of marketing and previous versions, is casting genius for reasons beyond the acting ability and experience that Essiedu will bring to the most nuanced and complicated character in the Hogwarts Saga.
For one thing, Rowling’s most fervent critics, the Potter fandom elite, are wrong-footed by this choice. If they decry the casting decision as tokenism or not true to canon or even as the shameless attempt to distract us from Rowling’s horrific crimes against cross-dressing men, they immediately become subject to criticism as canon-purists, even racists. If they embrace the casting decision — “Hurrah, diversity!” — then they involuntarily mute or diminish their depiction of Rowling as a troglodyte Nazi.
In summary, then:
- Black Severus, by defanging Rowling’s critics (or at least giving fans reason to think of her once again as a PC Queen) clears the major marketing hurdle for this adaptation.
- Black Severus, as noted, clears the Rickman Effect obstacle; the Bronte Studio version transforms the character so significantly that fond memories and comparisons are eclipsed and Essiedu no doubt will bring out more of the Snape mystery than the pedestrian Warner Brothers films allowed.
- Black Severus, too, generates a huge Buzz and twixter discussion point for fans of the books and Warner Brothers films. Screen Media addicts will be impatient to see this new Snape and especially those scenes where Harry and James come off as segregationists or worse. Imagine the irony, too, of Black Severus embracing the Dark Lord and the separatist ideology of the Death Eaters. Black Severus calling Lily Evans a “Mudblood” will be delicious, frankly, for the defamiliarization involved.
So, three cheers for the decision to cast Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape. The series reboot gets a world-class actor playing a key and very difficult role and Black Severus helps the marketing folks generate interest in and minimize resistance to Rowling’s revival of her most famous work. Hats off to Team Rowling for this choice!
