John Lithgow Responds To ‘Harry Potter’ Fans “Appalled” With His Dumbledore Casting​on April 18, 2025 at 10:39 pm

If Harry Potter fans can suspend their disbelief to allow for invisibility cloaks, flying cars and time-traveling pocket watches, John Lithgow hopes they can get around his casting.

Following the the 2x Oscar nominee’s casting as Albus Dumbledore, he admitted he’s “very excited” and “very intimidated” by the role from the J.K. Rowling book series, which was previously portrayed on-screen by Richard Harris, Michael Gambon and Jude Law.

“I will be following the great Michael Gambon. I’m not an Englishman, although I’ve played one on TV,” he said on BBC’s The One Show. “I remind everyone that I did play Winston Churchill on The Crown and did just fine.”

Lithgow added, “But yes, I mean, it’s an enormous thrill. But I know there were plenty of people appalled that an American should be hired to play the ultimate English wizard. But, I will do my best.”

In addition to Lithgow’s casting as Dumbledore in the upcoming Max series from writer-showrunner Francesca Gardiner, Deadline revealed this week that he’ll be joined by Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch.

After Harris originated the role of Dumbledore in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) and The Chamber of Secrets (2002), he died at age 72 in 2002. Gambon took over the role in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Goblet of Fire (2005), Order of Phoenix (2007), The Half-Blood Prince (2009), The Deathly Hallows — Part 1 (2010) and The Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (2011). Law played a younger version of the Hogwarts dean in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) and The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022).