{"id":489411,"date":"2026-03-22T14:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489411\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T14:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:37:10","slug":"harry-potter-star-paapa-essiedu-says-he-received-death-threats-over-snape-casting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/489411\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter star Paapa Essiedu says he received death threats over Snape casting"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Harry Potter<\/a> actor Paapa Essiedu<\/a> has said he\u2019s received race-fuelled death threats following his casting as Professor Snape in the forthcoming HBO Max adaptation of the much-loved JK Rowling series.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old actor was announced to have been cast in the production last April, with uproar from critics claiming that he couldn\u2019t play the fictional potions professor because he was written as white. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been told, \u2018Quit or I\u2019ll murder you,\u2019\u201d Essiedu told The Times<\/a>. \u201cThe reality is that if I look at Instagram I will see somebody saying, \u2018I\u2019m going to come to your house and kill you,\u2019\u201d the star added of the online abuse. <\/p>\n

Although the actor added that he\u2019s \u201cpretty sure\u201d he\u2019s not going to be murdered \u2014 a comment he caveated could \u201cage badly\u201d \u2014 he maintained that \u201cnobody should have to encounter this for doing their job\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany people put their lives on the line in their work. I\u2019m playing a wizard in Harry Potter. And I\u2019d be lying if I said it doesn\u2019t affect me emotionally,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut the abuse fuels me. And makes me more passionate about making this character my own, because I think of how I felt as a kid. I would imagine myself at Hogwarts on broomsticks, and the idea that a kid like me can see themselves represented in that world? That\u2019s motivation to not be intimidated by someone saying they\u2019d rather I died instead of doing work I\u2019m going to be really proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Essiedu hasn\u2019t reported any of the death threats to authorities. \u201cI don\u2019t think some 17-year-old boy being put in jail for two weeks for threatening to murder me would actually make me feel any better,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n

\"PaapaPaapa Essiedu is set to replace Alan Rickman as Snape in \u2018Harry Potter’ TV series (Getty Images \/ Warner Bros Pictures)<\/p>\n

Shortly after Essiedu\u2019s casting was announced, the actor was among the hundreds of TV and film professionals who signed a letter calling for industry action on trans rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the last six years, JK Rowling has repeatedly come under fire<\/a> for various comments about gender, with many, including stars of the Potter film adaptations, accusing her of transphobia.<\/p>\n

After Essiedu\u2019s appearance as a signatory on the letter, an \u201cinsider\u201d told MailOnline<\/a> that Rowling would \u201cnot be bothered one iota by Essiedu\u2019s decision \u2013 and wouldn\u2019t dream of intervening to get him sacked, despite being heavily involved in the project\u201d.<\/p>\n

Addressing this report X\/Twitter, Rowling wrote: \u201cI don\u2019t have the power to sack an actor from the series and I wouldn\u2019t exercise it if I did. I don\u2019t believe in taking away people\u2019s jobs or livelihoods because they hold legally protected beliefs that differ from mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Harry Potter series is being filmed now and will premiere in 2027.<\/p>\n

Essiedu has signed onto the series for ten years and told The Times it was a \u201cbig commitment.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll be 45 by the time I finish,\u201d he said, \u201cand I know my life is going to change in a big way, but I have to just surrender to that. I could have children by the end of this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-489411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}