There are a lot of questions on the minds of Harry Potter fans regarding the upcoming HBO series based on the hit franchise, chief among them are the questions about how the show is going to avoid the awkward disparities between the stars’ ages and appearances, and the characters they’re playing on-screen.
This is something that has long been an issue for shows with young cast members, most notably with Netflix’s Stranger Things which has become the butt of many jokes over the disparity between the ages of its young cast and the characters they’re playing on the show, one caused by the delays between seasons of the show. While only weeks pass between some seasons, years pass between seasons of the Netflix hit which has resulted in the cast having to play characters who are now years younger.
Considering HBO is said to be looking to cast actors between 9 to 11 years old to play the new iterations of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Grange, there is an understandable fear that the new Harry Potter show could face a similar issue that comes with casting young actors. This is something HBO is apparently taking quite seriously and the network is actively working on ways to avoid the awkwardness that comes from the growth spurts of its young cast caused by long breaks between seasons.
As HBO chairman and CEO Casey Bloys revealed via a recent press conference, “It is something we’re thinking about,” and they actually have a pretty solid early plan in place.
“One of the ideas we talked about was shooting the first season and the second season very close to each other time-wise, because 11 to 13 is a big jump in kids’ lives. You can get away with 13 to 15, something like that. So we’re going to have to think about scheduling and shooting so that they don’t grow too much between seasons. It is a consideration.”
Honestly, shooting the show’s first two seasons back-to-back would indeed be a creative way to avoid the growth spurts that come with working with young actors. And as Bloys pointed out, it would be a lot more manageable to work around the time jump that would then come between seasons 2 and 3 which could help make it jarring for fans watching.
Since the network has already committed to multiple seasons of the show, it has the luxury of planning a bit better than a show like Stranger Things which had to take things season by season over the years. Hopefully, that will allow the show not to run into the same issue Stranger Things has encountered with young adults having to play characters years younger than them.