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Say what you will about Paapa Essiedu, but he is a millennial at heart. The I May Destroy You and Gangs of London actor is a little over a month out from the premiere of HBO\u2019s adaptation of J.K. Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter series, meaning it\u2019s time to start talking Snape<\/a>, which is easy for him to do when he was a childhood Potter fan. In a new interview with Vanity Fair<\/a>, Essiedu discussed his interest in the series starting at a young age, explaining that Rowling\u2019s books were \u201ccoming out regularly at the precise time that I was starting to develop my taste for literature.\u201d In all the conversations about whom, exactly, the new Potter series is for, perhaps we\u2019ve forgotten that there\u2019s a whole host of millennial actors who, having grown up with the books and original films, now want the opportunity to star in the adaptations themselves, even if playing a teacher might make them feel old, as Essiedu jokes that it does.<\/p>\n At an expanded eight episodes \u2014 a little less than six hours longer than the initial Chris Columbus\u2013directed adaptation of the first Potter novel \u2014 the first season of Harry Potter looks aggressively too faithful, but for Essiedu\u2019s casting, which caused controversy around its initial announcement<\/a> due to the actor\u2019s race and previously expressed support for the trans community. In the lead-up to the show\u2019s premiere, Essiedu maintains that support. \u201cI believe, in my bones, that trans people, queer people, people of all creeds and color have got the right to be treated with respect and dignity and safety at all times,\u201d he says. That there\u2019s an inherent contradiction to what he believes and the ways in which Rowling has used her profits from the series to fund anti-trans legislation \u2014 the support for which some have called \u201ctrans genocide\u201d<\/a> \u2014 is the unfortunate reality of the Potter series going forward, but Essiedu believes these themes are what make Potter such a rich text. \u201cThemes of forgiveness, and good triumphing over evil, and of accepting people for who they are and allowing people to really be themselves within a world where anything is possible\u201d is what he believes the books\u2019 lingering legacy is. Allowing people to be themselves in a world where anything is possible is a great theme \u2014 one that its author might want to take into account.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Vulture Daily<\/p>\n An entertainment newsletter for the pop-culture obsessed.<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n