After years of updates and speculation, the first trailer for HBO’s Harry Potter series is out in the world. The series has ambitious plans to adapt J.K. Rowling’s iconic children’s books into a new format, hoping to chronicle the events across seven seasons and a decade of television. It’s an effort that has been met with plenty of scrutiny and confusion ever since it was first announced, given both the existing visual aesthetic of the original movies, and Rowling’s extremely controversial behavior and anti-transgender statements in the years since the books were finished.
One actor who was particularly scrutinized for his involvement in the Harry Potter reboot was John Lithgow, who signed on to play Albus Dumbledore in early 2025. In a new profile with The New York Times, Lithgow revealed that he actually nearly walked away from the series altogether amid the controversy. Ultimately, he decided to stay in the role, while recognizing that “every interview I will ever do for the rest of my life this will come up.”
