John Tiffany, the director of
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, recently confessed that the next round of actors set to star in the London production will be announced very soon, and may or may not include the original cast (including Jamie Parker, Noma Dumezweni, and Paul Thornley as the trio).
The original West End cast's contracts end this May, with the possibility to renewal and continuations in the roles. However, who actually returns will soon be found out.
Tiffany also stated that the Broadway cast of
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child -
auditions taking place later this month - will be a mixture of British and American actors, and that Parker, Dumezweni, and Thornley will get first dibs to play Harry, Hermione, and Ron again in New York City if they so chose to.
Quote:
‘Harry Potter’ has partly been a success because of the exemplary cast – is recasting going to be a nightmare?
John Tiffany: ‘It’s almost done. Has it been hard? We’ve put a lot of work into it, but at the the same time good actors want to do it because they know it needs good actors, they know their skill will be necessary to make it a success.’
How do you look back on the brouhaha over the casting of a black actor – Noma Dumezweni – in the role of Hermione?
Tiffany: ‘I hope it achieved something positive. People still say to me, “why did she change from a white woman to a black woman?” and I say “she didn’t really change, it’s just that the films chose to cast a white woman not a black woman”. There was stuff being tweeted directly at Noma like “does Hermione have to go offstage between scenes and eat bananas?”, and because she was tagged in we were able to do something about that. But I felt very responsible. Those comments that always start with “I’m not racist, but…”, what they’re basically saying is “I can’t see a black person as the heroine of my story”.’