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Join today<\/a><\/p>\n \n Already a member? Paapa Essiedu <\/a>has spoken out about the backlash he received after he was cast as Professor Severus Snape in the new HBO TV adaptation of the Harry Potter books<\/a>.<\/p>\n After Essiedu\u2019s casting was announced in 2025<\/a> some online commenters claimed that he shouldn\u2019t have been given the role as the fictional potions professor because he was written as white. He even received death threats, forcing HBO to beef up security while filming<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking to Variety<\/a> at the Time100 Next Gala this week about working on the series \u2014 the first installment of which is due out in December \u2014 Essiedu said, \u201cThe whole team has been so supportive of me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, my priority is the work,\u201d he continued. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t take this job on [otherwise], but I walk into it with open eyes. I understand the broad spectrum of what the reaction to what we\u2019re doing means, and I take that mantle on with an open and full heart. I\u2019ve also been blown away by a lot of the support and well-wishes and excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n Commenting on the series, he said, \u201cI\u2019m really proud of what I\u2019ve seen so far. There are so many people who worked so hard on this project \u2014 and who it means so much to. It\u2019s been a long time coming. It\u2019s been a long time that people have been saying a lot of things, and now\u2019s the time for people to engage with what we made.\u201d<\/p>\n When Essiedu\u2019s casting was announced, he received racist messages<\/a> telling him: \u201cQuit or I\u2019ll murder you\u201d and \u201cI\u2019m going to come to your house and kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n In response, Chief Content Officer of Skydance DTC, Casey Bloys, confirmed that production has a \u201cserious security team.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked by Variety<\/a> earlier this year whether he anticipated that kind of reaction, Bloys responded: \u201cWith all actors on any kind of big IP shows \u2014 and this is obviously one of those where you\u2019ve got, you know, passionate fans, people with a lot of opinions \u2014 it can get scary in places.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201cSo for any show like that, we anticipated it and tried to have training, you know, best practices in terms of social media and how to handle it. And obviously, we\u2019ve got a serious security team. So unfortunately, it was something that we thought might happen and we just try to be as careful as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Paapa Essiedu will take on the role of Severus Snape in the forthcoming ‘Harry Potter’ TV series (HBO)<\/p>\n
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Essiedu said he has been \u2018blown away by a lot of the support and well-wishes and excitement\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n