Confirmed: John Lithgow is Harry Potter show's Dumbledore
Beloved actor leaked the news a little earlier than planned, apparently
Confirming casting rumours from earlier this year, John Lithgow says he will play Dumbledore in the upcoming Harry Potter TV series.
Lithgow himself announced the news during an interview with ScreenRant.
“It came as a total surprise to me,” says Lithgow. “I just got the phone call up at the Sundance Film Festival for yet another film, and it was not an easy decision because it's going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I'm afraid.”
Lithgow is currently 79, and with the reported plan to (roughly) make one season of the show per year, representing one year of life at Hogwarts, it’s a lengthy commitment.
“I'm very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to Harry Potter. That's why it's been such a hard decision. I'll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I've said yes,” he told ScreenRant.
It sounds like HBO wasn’t too pleased with what Lithgow let out of the bag, though, as it has released a statement reiterating this casting is not official yet.
“We appreciate that such a high-profile series will draw a lot of rumour and speculation. As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalise deals,” says HBO.
Casting announcements are all part of the hype cycle of a show, after all. But unless HBO is mightily miffed at Lithgow, enough to boot him out of the cast, it does sound like he’s in for the job.
Listen up, muggles
To date, Dumbledore has been played by Richard Harris and Michael Gambon, who took over after Harris’s death in 2002. Michael Gambon died in 2023.
The Harry Potter show is expected to start filming sometime in mid-2025, at the UK’s own Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden, near Watford. This is where big parts of the Harry Potter films were shot, and is home to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour.
No roles in the show have been confirmed as yet, although Paapa Essiedu has been rumoured to take on Severus Snape. But the age of the young leads will be the most crucial part.
Warner Bros. describes the show as a “decade-long” series. The kids are at Hogwarts for seven years in the books — although they miss out on the last year of education in the story thanks to all the adventuring they need to do.
Locking in kids for the long-haul worked with the films, but will it do the same with the TV show? We hope to see the first season of the Harry Potter series released in 2026.