HBO‘s mammoth adaptation of Harry Potter has added yet another intriguing name for the show’s second season. The adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is set to premiere on HBO Max on December 25, but this series is flying at a rapid pace, and Season 2 is already aiming to begin production imminently. Now, we officially have a key member of the Order of the Phoenix.
HBO has officially announced that Rafe Spall will play Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter Season 2, with Molly Hewitt-Richards joining as Moaning Myrtle and Jasper Ambrose portraying Colin Creevey. Spall‘s casting is particularly notable, given that his father, Timothy Spall, played a key role in the original films as Peter Pettigrew, best known as Wormtail, the snivelling right-hand man of Lord Voldemort.
Spall broke through with appearances in Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. He later played William Shakespeare in Anonymous before appearing in two major 2012 hits, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and Ang Lee’s Life of Pi. His subsequent film credits have included the Oscar-nominated The Big Short, Steven Spielberg’s The BFG, Netflix horror hit The Ritual, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Men in Black: International, and Just Mercy. On television, Spall spent five seasons starring opposite Esther Smith in Apple TV’s Trying and has also appeared in The English, Black Mirror, Roadies, and War of the Worlds.
Who Is Arthur Weasley?
Arthur Weasley is the father of Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Percy, Bill and Charlie Weasley, as well as the husband of Molly Weasley. Despite working in the Ministry of Magic’s Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, Arthur is endlessly fascinated by the non-magical world, often boring poor Harry with questions about electricity, telephones and rubber ducks. Muggle money baffles him, while the mechanics of an escalator prove too much for him to handle when he escorts Harry to the Ministry of Magic in Order of the Phoenix.
Although he initially appears as one of the series’ warmest comic relief figures, Arthur is a senior member of the Order of the Phoenix and one of Harry Potter’s closest parental figures throughout the story. Arthur is also a skilled wizard in his own right. In the original films, he was portrayed by Mark Williams. Hewitt-Richards will play Moaning Myrtle, the miserable girl ghost who haunts one of Hogwarts’ abandoned bathrooms and ends up helping Harry through the years with his various investigations, while Ambrose plays Creevey, an immensely earnest and annoying little boy with a camera who is obsessed with Harry, like a particularly parasocial fanboy.
The cast includes Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Professor McGonagall, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, and Luke Thallon as Professor Quirrell. The series also previously announced the casting of Kit Harington as Gilderoy Lockhart and Billy Barratt as Tom Riddle.
HBO’s Harry Potter Season 1 premieres this December, while Arthur Weasley is expected to make his first appearance when Season 2 adapts Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
via Collider