Nick Frost will step into the role of Hagrid for the new Harry Potter TV show. His latest comments on his role shine a light on HBO’s biggest challenge with the project.
Frost recently confirmed that his version of Hagrid would be different from the late Robbie Coltrane’s beloved portrayal. “I’ve tried to take what Robbie did and honor that . . . but also I’ve got eight hours here each series, while Robbie had two and a half — there has to be a bit more to him,” said Frost. “Some people won’t like it. They’ll go, ‘Not my Hagrid.’ And that is all right.”
From the sounds of it, Frost is already preparing for some potential backlash to his version of the character. His comments also underscore the biggest challenge HBO faces when it comes to the new show.
The Harry Potter TV show faces some big hurdles when it comes to iconic characters
The Harry Potter movies are some of the most beloved movies ever made and helped put a visual face to many of the characters fans remember from the book. As such, they’ve essentially become canonical to how many view these characters, both in looks and personality. Although HBO is looking to re-tell much more of the story than the movies did, they’ll still have an absolutely huge mountain to climb in getting fans to embrace the way they do it.
While new characters like Peeves and others will be new to the show, HBO will have to hope that fans are okay with the new stars. Characters like Harry, Ron, Hermione, and even older leads like Dumbledore and Snape became iconic thanks to the way actors like Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and others portrayed them. Many audiences (who grew up reading the books and seeing the movies) might not care enough to watch the story unfold again with new faces.
For HBO, this is where being more original will have to come in. The show is looking to differentiate itself by focusing more fully on the books. As a TV show set to be filmed across almost a decade, it will have the chance to explore much more of the books. Characters we only got to see a few times a year will appear in the show, and audiences will get to see them grow. Hopefully, this is enough to get folks to buy into the show, which is exactly what HBO would like. However, the concern still remains that there could be some who just won’t accept the new spin on it.
Originally reported by Anthony Nash for ComingSoon.
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