Sirius About the Reboot: Gary Oldman Loves the HBO ‘Harry Potter’ Series but Won’t Be Joining
Padfoot has given the reboot his blessing — he just won’t be moving back into Hogwarts. Gary Oldman, who played Sirius Black across the Harry Potter films, has weighed in on HBO’s upcoming series, and he’s firmly a fan of the idea even if he won’t be part of it.
Speaking with Los Angeles Times columnist Glenn Whipp for his Envelope newsletter, the 68-year-old actor said he’s already seen a trailer and called the project a “great idea.” He’s especially happy that the show plans to adapt each of J.K. Rowling’s seven books across its own season, giving room for the character detail and texture the two-hour films had to leave on the cutting-room floor.
Would he slip back into Sirius’s distressed velvet overcoat for the new version? Oldman doesn’t think so. He suspects the production would rather not have the original film cast clouding the fresh take, and joked that he’s simply too old for the part now.
That led somewhere thornier: with AI de-aging advancing by the week, is anyone really too old anymore? Oldman is skeptical. He pointed to the digital de-aging in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman as the film’s least convincing element, and said he prefers directors like Christopher Nolan, who use the technology sparingly. His bottom line was that he doesn’t want to be replaced entirely — and doubts any actor does.
For what it’s worth, Oldman recently delighted fans in a separate interview by cheerfully embracing his Hogwarts house. When the qualities of loyalty, patience, fairness and hard work were read aloud to him, he proudly declared himself a Hufflepuff — and clearly relished saying the word.
Will you miss the original cast in the new series, or are you ready for a brand-new set of faces under the Sorting Hat? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to follow along for the latest Harry Potter news.
Source: The Envelope, Los Angeles Times
