The cast of the upcoming HBO series Harry Potter has been announced. Since most of the cast of the show are children who will have to drop out of school to film, Warner Bros. has decided to open its own "mini-school" at its Leavesden studio in Watford, The Guardian reports.
HBO previously announced that Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alistair Stout will play the roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, respectively. In addition to them, the series will also feature more children playing the roles of Draco Malfoy and other Hogwarts students.
HBO CEO Casey Bloys said the mini-school will run for 10 years and the child actors, ages nine to 11, will spend their teenage years there, combining their studies with learning lines, makeup and other elements on set.
Jo Austin, from Tayberry Tuition, which provides specialist tutors on set for Netflix and the BBC, said the Harry Potter series is quite unique because it is aimed at children and the main actors are also children.
"This Harry Potter series is fairly unique in that it is child-based. The children are the stars and they are going to be on screen all the time. I can’t imagine many days filming when you haven’t got any children on set, so I think they are going to be in there most of the time and working very hard. They will be out of school for a period of six to nine months to film and complete each series," says Austen.
Nathaniel McCullough, co-founder of Simply Learning Tuition, who has worked on both sides of the camera as a tutor and director, says teachers will also be responsible for ensuring that companies adhere to legally mandated working hours for children of all ages.
"The problem with being on a film set is that there’s never enough time. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got behind the film, things go wrong. The lighting changes, the actors don’t quite pull off the performance they need or the director wants something different. So there’s always the temptation to say to a child: ‘Can you just do another take?’ That’s when the chaperone has to step in and say: ‘No’" says McCullough.
We remind you that in April, the performers of adult roles were also revealed, including Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape and others. It is expected that the first episodes of the Harry Potter series may appear as early as 2026.