HBO Harry Potter FINALLY CASTS VOLDEMORT (+2 Other MAJOR Roles)

0:00Class it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast. So why wait to find your new faith footwear? Step into a local Crocs store and step into your new look. Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the right pair doesn't just show up. It shows off. First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Crocs store today. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace. And there it was. The bike you've been searching for. You sent a message and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer find more on Facebook. Well folks, in a week that's been filled with Harry Potter updates,

1:02it looks like they're still coming. Because three new cast members have officially been announced for HBO's reboot. And the biggest one is Billy Barrett, who has officially been cast as the teenage Tom Riddle for season two of the show. In other words, we finally know who'd be playing the young man, who eventually becomes Lord Voldemort. I find this one particularly interesting because Tom Riddle was played by so many different actors in the original film series. Today, I want to take a close look at our new Tom Riddle. How he compares the actors who came before him, why the original films kept changing actors in the first place, and then toward the end, we've also got two other major season two casting announcements to discuss. But I'll get into those later. Let's get into it. Tom Riddle's character is essentially the central mystery of the entire second book. Harry first encounters him through the mysterious diary that once belonged to Riddle when he was a student at Hogwarts. And through it, Harry is able to communicate with what appears to be a preserved memory of an incredibly charming, intelligent Hogwarts student from 50 years earlier.

2:02Riddle even shows Harry a memory in which he appears to expose Hagrid as the person responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets. But as we eventually discover, the entire thing is a deception, because Tom Marvolo Riddle is, shocker, an anagram of Lord Earmold Vomit, just kidding. I am Lord Voldemort. And the seemingly helpful 16-year-old student Harry's been speaking to is actually a fragment of Voldemort himself. Preserved inside what we later learn was his very first hawk rucks. Malrae finds fully transformed Voldemort, maybe the version of the character must people immediately picture. Tom Riddle is dangerous in an entirely different way. He's handsome, charming, and he's remarkably good at convincing the people around him that he's someone he absolutely isn't. Which means Billy Barrett has quite an interesting job ahead of him, because if there's one thing a young Tom Riddle has to get right, it's that balance between charm and menace. While Voldemort does make a brief appearance in the original Philosopher's Stone on the back of Coral's head,

3:02the next major version of Voldemort that we see on screen comes in the original Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Christian Koulson played a 16-year-old Tom Riddle. Koulson is a British actor born in Manchester, England, and although he was actually around 23 years old when Chamber of Secrets was filmed, he was convincing enough to pass as a teenage riddle. And the reason another actor was needed here in the first place was pretty straightforward. The Voldemort we'd previously seen in Philosopher's Stone was played physically by Richard Bremer, whose face appeared on the back of Professor Koulson's head. Quick sign up for a second, I still don't think we've announced to explain the back of Koulson's head in the HBO series. So I wonder what they'll do there. Anyway, Chamber of Secrets wasn't showing his Voldemort in the present day. It was showing his Voldemort roughly 50 years earlier when he was still a student at Hogwarts. Bremer was obviously far too old to convincingly portray a 16-year-old Tom Riddle, and so Koulson was brought in to play this younger version of the character. And I think for a lot of Harry Potter fans, Koulson is still the definitive Tom Riddle,

4:03nailing the perfect combination of charm and menace. He speaks softly, looks completely trustworthy, and presents himself as this brilliant former Hogwarts student who simply wants to help Harry uncover the truth. And then, gradually, the mask starts to slip. He could very convincingly portray the supposedly good side of Tom Riddle when he needed to, while having absolutely no difficulty switching over to the much darker and more openly evil side of the character. And by the time we reach the Chamber itself, that charming Hogwarts prefect has disappeared, and we start to see the arrogance, cruelty and obsession with his own identity, that will eventually define Lord Voldemort. But even though Koulson smashed the role, he notably did not return when Tom Riddle appeared again later in the series. By the time Harry Potter and the Half Bud Prince came around, several years had passed, seven years to be exact. And Koulson had a ripe 30, but simply getting a little too old to convincingly play a 16-year-old riddle again. Which is why two new versions of Tom Riddle were introduced.

5:04To last it up with Crocs. You know back to school is coming in fast. So why wait to find your new faith footwear? Step into a local Crocs store and step into your new look. Try it. Style it. Make it yours. Because the ripe pair doesn't just show up. It shows off. First day fits, handled. Walk out ready for whatever's next. Visit your nearest Crocs store today. This episode is brought to you by Facebook. So you were scrolling on Marketplace. And there it was. The bike you've been searching for. You sent a message and it turned out the seller was super chatty, kind of funny, and an avid cyclist. The next thing you know, you're in a cycling crew. Well, a community cycling group. The thing about Facebook, you might find more than what you're looking for. From a browse to a bike ride, this summer find more on Facebook. The first was Hero Finds Tiffin, who played the 11 year old Tom Riddle that dumbledle visits at Wool's orphanage.

6:08If the surname sounds familiar, that's because Hero Finds Tiffin is an F.U. of Ray Finds, who played the adult Lord Voldemort. And alongside Tiffin, we had Frank Delane, who was cast as the teenage Tom Riddle after Coulson. Delane was an integral part of Half-Plaed Prince because he became the representative for Riddle during the Hogwarts flashbacks. Most notably, in the incredibly important scene where he approaches Professor Slughorn and starts asking him about Horcruxes. To be clear, I think Delane did a perfectly good job, but personally, I've always preferred Coulson's portrayal. Delane's Tom Riddle is unsettling almost immediately. There's something slightly creepy about him from the moment he starts speaking to Slughorn, which certainly works when we already know who this character eventually becomes. But Coulson to me was a little more dynamic in that he could actually make you believe that this was someone the teachers might have liked. And I feel like that's a really important part of Tom Riddle's character. He knew exactly what people wanted to see and he showed it to them, which is why Billy Barrett's casting is so interesting, because that's exactly the same balance he'll now have to find.

7:10I guess another big question is, what will HBO do with Tom Riddle going forward? I wonder if they too will have different actors for each stage of Riddle's life. Richard Brahma was Voldemort in Philosopher's Stone, Christian Coulson, the 16 year old riddle in Chamber of Secrets. Hero finds Tiffin, was 11 year old riddle in Half Blood Prince, Frank Delane was teenage riddle in Half Blood Prince, and of course, Ray finds as the adult Lord Voldemort. Obviously they aren't going to use the same actor to portray Riddle at 11 and, as an adult, decades later. But HBO potentially has an opportunity to create a little more continuity, because Barrett is only 19 and present. That means even if another 70 years fly by before Half Blood Prince, it's possible he could still play teenage Tom Riddle once more. 26 to 16 isn't quite as much of a stretch as 30 to 16. Either way, I'm excited to see what he does with the role. And on a lighter note, Dobby has also been recast. British actor and presenter Lenny Rash has been cast as the house-self, taking over a character who was famously voiced by Toby Jones throughout the original Harry Potter films.

8:14My first thought was that this is going to be a slightly different kind of performance compared to most of the other casting announcements we've had, because Dobby will presumably still be created heavily through visual effects. How much of Russia's physical performance ends up shaping the final character remains to be seen. But from a story perspective, his arrival is obviously a major one, because Dobby is absolutely everywhere in Chamber of Secrets. He's responsible for the ruined dinner, private drive, he seals platform 9 and 3 quarters, he enchants the bloodshed that attacks Harry. And although Harry spends most of the story believing Dobby is trying to make his life miserable, we of course eventually learn that he's been desperately trying to keep Harry away from Hogwarts, because he knows something terrible is about to happen there. I wasn't personally familiar with Lenny Rash before now, but after reading the announcement, I want to check out some of his stuff, and it does feel like he could be a good fit. Continuing the casting updates, we also have a new Ginny Weasley. Gracie Cockroon was originally cast for Ginny in Season 1, but she will not be continuing in the role going forward, which is why actress Bonnie Hilba's cast is her replacement for Season 2.

9:18And if there's ever a time for a Ginny recast, this is probably the most important point to get it right, because Chamber of Secrets is really Ginny's first major story. In the book she begins her first year at Hogwarts, gets hold of Tom Riddle's Zyri, and slowly becomes manipulated by the fragment of Voldemort living inside it. Riddle uses her to reopen the Chamber, release the Basilisk, and ultimately lure Harry down into the Chamber itself. Ginny played by Bonnie Wright in the original films, was probably one of the most widely criticized adaptations from the book. So it looks like Bonnie Hil has her work cut out for her here, as I'm sure fans will have big expectations. Like I mentioned for all of the other actors, I'm still waiting to see how they perform, but I've got my fingers crossed. What do you guys think of these casting decisions? Let me know down in the comment section below. Until next time, remember, it does not do to dwell on dreams, and forget to live. You want to impress them on a first date, but also play it cool. So what do you do?

10:21I'm Ruby Thorpe, and I wrote and read a real love story about a hinged couple that navigated exactly that. Listen to the free audiobook now.