
Potterheads around the world have been waiting with baited breath for the release of cast details for the upcoming West End play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Rather than casting the original actors themselves, or attempting to find performers with a similar ‘look’, the production team have branched out for the three leads.
Harry Potter will be played by Jamie Parker, of History Boys fame.
Paul Thornley, who was in the 2012 film adaption of Les Miserables, will play Ron Weasley.
And Hermione Granger will be played by Noma Dumezweni.
Dumezweni is a multi-Olivier Award winning actress who was born in Swaziland. Her casting is causing some what of a stir, due to the glaring departure from the Hermione we’ve come to know, Emma Watson.
And what a wonderful departure it is.
Hermione’s character, with her muggle-born lineage, is repeatedly marginalised by the wider wizarding community. She is labelled a ‘mudblood’, and looked down upon by her peers and teachers alike, all because of her biology.
Hermione is called a ‘filthy little mudblood’: