HBO Reportedly Wants This Marvel Star To Play Voldemort In The Harry Potter Series

DanielRPK, a person known for occasionally scoring great scoops on upcoming TV shows and movies, claims on his Patreon that Warner Bros. wants Paul Bettany to play Voldemort in the forthcoming "Harry Potter" series.

Bettany, who originated the voice role of J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's "Iron Man" and the physical, CGI-assisted role of Vision in 2015's "Avengers: Age of Ultron," is the latest actor to potentially see his name attached to the "Harry Potter" TV show for HBO. With "Succession" veterans Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod on hand as showrunner and executive producer, respectively, the pedigree is there, but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention one thing here. Series author (and the show's executive producer) Joanne "J.K." Rowling has invited a ton of controversy over the past several years regarding her cruel views of transgender women. That means that any actor attached to this project will inevitably end up answering questions about Rowling's expressed beliefs; John Lithgow, who's set to play Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry headmaster Albus Dumbledore, said (via The Hollywood Reporter) that he found her views "ironic and inexplicable," but remains attached to the project anyway. 

That's a lot of necessary context, but all of that is to say that taking a major role like the Dark Lord Voldemort, née Tom Marvolo Riddle, in this "Harry Potter" project is fraught. Perhaps that's why another major actor made it quite clear recently that he's not participating in this series.

Before the rumors about Paul Bettany potentially playing Voldemort in the HBO "Harry Potter" series intensified, Cillian Murphy, who won an Academy Award for playing theoretical physicist and "father of the nuclear bomb" J. Robert Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's 2023 film "Oppenheimer," was asked whether or not he was playing the role. His answer was unequivocal.

"I'm categorically not," Murphy told The Times of London, who noted that he "scoffed" while answering the question. "Can you make that the headline?" (They didn't, but they reference the Voldemort rumors in the subheading.) Not only does this mean that Murphy is free for a possible new "28 Years Later" movie (which I very much hope is happening even though "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple" flopped at the box office), but it also makes sense. The notoriously recalcitrant Irish actor, who surprised everyone by lending his voice and image to Taylor Swift's "Opalite" music video, tends to be pretty picky and choosy about his projects ... and even though this is pure conjecture, it's easy to imagine that if being hounded about even maybe playing Voldemort is annoying, actually playing the role and being faced with questions about the author's views would be even more frustrating for him.

In any case, I don't envy the person who takes on the role of Voldemort in the new "Harry Potter" show, solely because they have humongous shoes to fill. I'm talking, of course, about the fact that they have to follow Ralph Fiennes as the series' antagonist, and he was great.

Portraying Voldemort after Ralph Fiennes portrayed the evil wizard in (most of) the original "Harry Potter" film franchise is a tall order for any actor. Technically, a handful of actors have played Voldemort including Fiennes, and by that I mean the character has required a bunch of different performers to portray him at different ages and in different forms. In the first movie, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," Richard Bremmer plays the Voldemort sticking out of the back of Hogwarts professor Quirinus Quirrell's (Ian Hart) head, and in the subsequent movie, "Chamber of Secrets," Christian Coulson plays a teenaged Tom Riddle summoned from a bewitched diary who confronts Harry (Daniel Radcliffe). 

It's not until Voldemort rises from the "dead" during the conclusion of the fourth film, "Goblet of Fire," that Fiennes' version of this monstrous Dark wizard comes into play ... and even so, younger actors Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Frank Dillane portray him in memories seen in the sixth movie, "Half-Blood Prince." (Yes, Tiffin is related to Fiennes; he's his nephew.) Even though the "Harry Potter" movies admittedly make some sort of goofy decisions about how Voldemort is portrayed (his weird, flaky death at the end of "Deathly Hallows — Part 2" comes to mind, as does his weird instinct to hug Tom Felton's Draco Malfoy shortly beforehand), Fiennes is, put simply, phenomenal. As the sneering, noseless, and deeply twisted and evil wizard, Fiennes excels, and I really don't envy Bettany or anyone else for having to follow him.

In any case, we're getting this "Harry Potter" TV series sometime in 2027 ... and we'll have to wait and see if Bettany definitively ends up playing Voldemort.