Paul Bettany has revealed that he has not received a call about playing Lord Voldemort in HBO‘s Harry Potter series, but did not rule out being cast as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Speaking to Screen Rant at the Saturn Awards on Sunday, Bettany said: “I haven’t heard anything about that [playing Voldemort] …. I’m a big fan of the [Harry Potter] IP, and I’m a big fan of HBO, but nobody has called me up about that.”
The WandaVision star was first linked to Voldemort by Daniel Richtman, who reported that Bettany was HBO’s preferred candidate to play Potter’s nemesis in the latest J.K. Rowling adaptation.
The casting of Voldemort is one of the big outstanding questions around the HBO series, which is now well into production on Season 1 in the UK. A number of actors have been linked to the part, including Cillian Murphy and Tilda Swinton.
Murphy was talked up by Ralph Fiennes, who played Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter film saga, but the Oppenheimer star has ruled himself out more than once.
“No, my kids show me it occasionally, but no, I don’t know anything about that,” Murphy said on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “I mean, also, it’s just really hard to follow anything Ralph Fiennes does. The man is an absolute acting legend. So, good luck to whoever is going to fill those shoes.”
The Harry Potter TV series stars Dominic McLaughlin (Harry Potter), Alastair Stout (Ron Weasley), and Arabella Stanton (Hermione Granger). Draco will be played in the series by Lox Pratt.
Other casting includes John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid.
Additionally, Bertie Carvel will play Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, and Johnny Flynn will portray Draco’s father, Lucius Malfoy. The Dursleys, Harry’s aunt and uncle, will be brought to life by Bel Powley as Petunia and Daniel Rigby as her husband Vernon.