Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alistair Stout lead the series as Harry, Hermione and Ron
NEED TO KNOW
- HBO debuted the first teaser trailer for the upcoming Harry Potter TV series adaptation on March 25
- Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alistair Stout will lead the series as Harry, Hermione and Ron
- The series is now set to premiere Christmas 2026
Dominic McLaughlin has officially stepped into Harry Potter's shoes.
On Wednesday, March 25, HBO released the first trailer, just one day after sharing the first official photo of Dominic McLaughlin as the titular character, donning a Gryffindor Quidditch robe.
McLaughlin's casting was announced in May — alongside the news that Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout will star as Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley — and production began in July on the series, which will adapt each of J.K. Rowling's seven books into separate seasons of television.
Credit: Aidan Monaghan/HBO
Alongside McLaughlin, Stanton and Stout, John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Paapa Essiedu, Nick Frost, Katherine Parkinson and Bel Powley are among the other cast members confirmed to star in the series.
The role of Voldemort has yet to be cast, though speculation has been rampant that Cillian Murphy would take over the role from Ralph Fiennes. Murphy has repeatedly shut down those rumors.
After production got underway on the series, Daniel Radcliffe reached out to McLaughlin to wish him good luck.
“I know a few people who are working on the production, so I wrote to Dominic and I sent him a letter and he sent me a very sweet note back,” Radcliffe said on Good Morning America in November. "I just wanted to write to him to say, ‘I hope you have the best time, and an even better time than I did — I had a great time, but I hope you have an even better time.'"
McLaughlin said it was "insane" to hear from Radcliffe. "My dad just tapped me on the train and he just gave me this letter. I read it and then I got to the bottom, and it said, ‘Dan R.’ I was going mad, but I had to keep it [cool]. I was on the train," he said on U.K.'s CBBC show Saturday Mash-Up! Live.
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The forthcoming series promises to take on a broader perspective on the beloved story compared to Rowling's book series, and the original film adaptations. Lox Pratt, who will play Draco Malfoy, told 1883 Magazine that the series is "really brilliant" and will give fans a whole new sense of his character.
"[Executive producers] Francesca [Gardiner] and Mark [Mylod] have been audible about this in their interviews, there’s just so much more that you get to see. You get to see all the teachers in their little rooms. You get to see Draco at home," he teased. "I won’t spoil too much about that, but there are some brilliant scenes at home where you start to get an insight into how he is."
Whereas Draco was "sort of 2D" and the "sneery villain" in the movies — as portrayed by Tom Felton — Pratt said there's "so much more" to him that will be discovered.
The Harry Potter series is on HBO Christmas 2026.
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