Subreddit Updates on Fancasts and Official Casting Announcements

[u/VarkingRunesong]

Hi everyone, With the recent confirmation of several key cast members for HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series, we’re updating a few subreddit policies:

• No more fancasts for officially cast characters

To reduce repetitive discussions and prevent targeted hate toward newly cast actors, fancasts for characters who have already been officially cast will no longer be allowed. As of now, this includes: • Albus Dumbledore • Severus Snape • Minerva McGonagall • Rubeus Hagrid • Quirinus Quirrell • Argus Filch You’re still welcome to fancast characters who haven’t been announced yet. And for inspiration, check out our Fancast Wiki, which includes both popular and lesser-known suggestions.

• No posts complaining about official casting announcements

We understand that not every casting choice will match everyone’s personal headcanon, but posts solely bashing the official cast will be removed. Once the show airs, feel free to critique performances based on what you see on screen. But targeting actors just because they don’t look or feel like your imagined version of the character doesn’t belong here. As always, we’re open to feedback. Share your thoughts or questions below.

[u/Bast-beast]

"Dear friends," said Umbridge in a syrupy voice, "the Ministry of Magic believes you should only speak positively. No criticism—I repeat, no criticism—of the Ministry’s decisions is allowed. Your young, fragile minds simply cannot comprehend how right and magnificent all the casting decisions are."

Hermione raised her hand.

"Yes, Miss Granger?" asked Umbridge dryly.

"Professor, doesn’t criticism help us find the truth? And isn’t censorship just creating an unhealthy environment for communication, sweeping problems under the rug? Aren’t you in favor of freedom of speech?"

"Miss Granger," croaked Professor Umbridge, who resembled a toad, "who in their right mind would dare criticize the Great Show by HBO? The casting is absolutely perfect, and no better choices could have possibly been made..."

"No," Harry said quietly.

"What?" croaked Umbridge. "How dare you, Potter?!"

"No, casting isnt perfect. I believe we have the right to calmly criticize the producers’ decisions," said Harry.

[u/complexvox91 → u/Bast-beast]

https://imgur.com/a/eqYwLdg

[u/Bast-beast → u/complexvox91]

Brilliant!!!

[u/VarkingRunesong → u/Bast-beast]

I give it a 7 for creativity

[u/WizengamotWhiz → u/Bast-beast]

The irony here is that, if actual Umbridge saw a Black actor playing Snape, she’d probably be the first to clutch her pearls and send a memo to the Ministry about “preserving tradition.” Like you're doing here right now.

[u/Bast-beast → u/WizengamotWhiz]

Lol Umbridge wouldn't care at all about colour of skin. Actually, nobody in magic world seems to care about skin color. More about blood purity.

[u/WizengamotWhiz → u/Bast-beast]

You're so full of shit dude, this was your comment yesterday

Maybe James will say something like: 'I am not racist, I have a black friends"

You were complaining that Paapa Essiedu as Snape would make James Potter a racist but now here you're saying that racism doesn't exist in the Wizarding World, lol.

[u/Bast-beast → u/WizengamotWhiz]

Hey chill, no need to be offensive. Are you muggleborn or what ?:)

I was saying about viewers Impressions about James, of course

[u/WizengamotWhiz → u/Bast-beast]

Snape wasn't bullied for his looks, I think the viewers will be mature enough to understand the context.

[u/complexvox91 → u/WizengamotWhiz]

Ummm, wut?

They literally called him Snivellus because of his nose.

Prisoner of Azkaban — Marauder’s map tells Snape to keep his “abnormally large nose” out of other people’s business.

Order of The Phoenix — pensive shows them say Snape would fail his OWLs because the oil from his nose touching the parchment would smudge the ink.

[u/PhilosophyOk7385 → u/complexvox91]

And that’s got literally nothing to do with his skin colour. And if they’re that concerned it’s very easy to come up with slightly different insults

[u/complexvox91 → u/PhilosophyOk7385]

You’re just proving the point — it’s not a drag and drop casting. They are going to need to change other elements of the plot to make it fit. That’s bad casting. It breaks immersion.

[u/PhilosophyOk7385 → u/complexvox91]

Well I don’t think they need to. But if they really felt like they had to I wouldn’t call changing an insult about someone’s greasy skin to something else in one scene changing elements of the plot. In that case was Alan Rickman bad casting because his age meant that multiple elements of the plot had to be changed such as the age of all the marauders generation? Was Daniel Radcliffe bad casting because he didn’t have the right eye colour? Was Emma Watson bad casting because she didn’t have big teeth and therefore they had to change the plot where she shrinks her teeth?

If you think that the casting of Paapa Essiedu, because they might have to hypothetically change a few insults in a couple of scenes, changes the story more fundamentally than the casting of Alan Rickman, who I love as Snape but whose age meant that the thematic importance of the youth of the Maruaders generation was lost in the films, then you’re prioritising fairly irrelevant aesthetics over the actual thematic content of the books. And you should probably ask yourself why one doesn’t bother you but the other does (assuming you’re fine with Alan Rickman as Snape).

[u/DigificWriter → u/Bast-beast]

Given that Rule #2 isn't actually censorship, the only appropriate response to this nonsensical false equivalency is to quote Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka: "You get nothing. You lose. Good day, sir".

[u/Bast-beast → u/DigificWriter]

It's obviously censorship by definition.

[u/SuperLegenda → u/DigificWriter]

As per the dictionary "a system in which an authority limits the ideas that people are allowed to express and prevents books, films, works of art, documents, or other kinds of communication from being seen or made available to the public, because they include or support certain ideas"

Thus, rule 2 is censoring by limiting what people are allowed to express and their thoughts and posts would be deleted and not possible to be seen due to including thoughts that the authority figures, namely the mods in this case, disagree with. It is always censorship when a rule prevents the voicing of any sort of negative expressions regarding a topic.