Six-time Emmy winner John Lithgow is likely to play Professor Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s highly anticipated Harry Potter series, American news portal Deadline reported on Wednesday.
A powerful wizard, Dumbledore serves as the headmaster of Hogwarts wizarding school. He also leads the Order of the Phoenix in its fight against the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort.
In the original Harry Potter film series, the character was played by the late actor Richard Harris and Michael Gambon.
The upcoming series is set to be filmed at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden, where the movies were shot. It is expected to premiere on HBO in late 2026 or early 2027.
The Harry Potter series, designed to run over a decade, comes from writer/showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director/executive producer Mark Mylod. Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, called the upcoming show a “faithful adaptation” of J.K. Rowling’s novels at the time of the original announcement in 2021.
The Harry Potter series will not show the return of the original trio Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, who played the roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley in the movie series. However, HBO has not yet revealed any details about the new cast.
Lithgow was recently seen in Conclave, the papal election thriller that has received eight nods at the 2025 Oscars.
