There’s no one out there who could possibly replace the late, great Alan Rickman as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter universe, so there was always going to be some backlash no matter who HBO cast for the part in their upcoming Harry Potter TV series.
That being said, HBO execs have cast British actor Paapa Essiedu, 34, for the role, and the reaction has been, shall we say, mixed:
You’re telling me a black man was the closest actor they could find to Snape in the whole world??
He has a literal clone just walking about and you cast a black guy?!?! pic.twitter.com/17NUxSDwcC
— Nicole Arbour (@NicoleArbour) March 8, 2025
we are about to ascend to racism levels we have never seen before https://t.co/HdiKhFYeeT
— charlie soprano (@LittleCharlesTV) March 7, 2025
Don’t get me wrong. Paapa Essiedu is insanely good actor. But why do they force diversity in everything. Is Hollywood incapable of writing good iconic insanely thorough POC characters?
— Mia ᡣ (@hashsobrown) March 7, 2025
I dont see a problem with a black Snape. It actually makes more scense bc Snape had a childhood crush on Lilly,Harry’s mom. This makes it a bit more culturally taboo. I like it
— SwaggerTimez☠️ (@VinceDamiano07) March 8, 2025
It’s a shame that white people aren’t allowed to have their own culture without constantly having to race swap our literature for other races.
— SavageRetort (@MemeLordMayhem) March 7, 2025
Damn, so much white fragility in this feed.
Hey fellow white folks, get the over it, it’s a fictional character, NOT a real person, why are you all so fucking offended by a person of color playing him? Your blatant racism is on full display you clowns.
Congrats to Paapa Essiedu
— Mr. P Chill (@MrPChill) March 7, 2025
I love when racist whites are triggered by race swaps in a fairytale such as this they are such an unserious bunch
— Eli (@Eli330124) March 8, 2025
Great actor that’s about to be subjected to slurs that haven’t been heard of since the reign of Queen Victoria just because he’s black smh
— ICHIGO (@Ichigo11001) March 8, 2025
Now obviously a lot of the backlash is just straight up racism, but there’s also some fair criticism in there too. After all, the Harry Potter books describe Snape as a man with “greasy, shoulder-length black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin”, so if your beef is with the Harry Potter series not staying true to the books/movies, then fair enough. You could also argue that Paapa Essiedu is way too conventionally good-looking to be playing a character who’s supposed to be an ugly, menacing, greaseball emo reject.
However you feel about it, it’s hardly Paapa Essiedu’s fault that he’s landed this dream role, and he’s obviously auditioned for it and HBO liked what they saw, so not much else we can do now but play it out and see how it goes. There may be nothing on the surface about Paapa Essiedu that screams ‘Severus Snape’, but he’s a solid actor (The Outrun, Black Mirror, I May Destroy You) so who knows? Might not be the disaster that Harry Potter diehards are expecting to be.
Expect HBO’s Harry Potter TV series to arrive in 2026.
For the time Disney faced backlash over their black Tinker Bell in Peter Pan, click HERE. Easy controversy.
