The Harry Potter revival has “a serious security team” amid death threats aimed at some actors.
The upcoming HBO adaptation of JK Rowling’s wizarding series has sparked a lot of debate around the author’s outspoken views which many have deemed transphobic, while new Severus Snape actor Paapa Essiedu opening up about the toxic and racist reactions to him joining the project.
HBO and HBO Max chief Casey Bloys told Variety: “With all actors on any kind of big IP shows – and this is obviously one of those where you’ve got, you know, passionate fans, people with a lot of opinions — it can get scary in places.
“So 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’ve 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.”
Paapa recently revealed that people have objected to a black actor playing Snape.
He told The Times newspaper: “I’ve been told, ‘Quit, or I’ll murder you’…
“It really matters. The reality is that if I look at Instagram I will see somebody saying, ‘I’m going to come to your house and kill you.’ So, while I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be murdered… That could age badly!
“But, yes, while I hope I’ll be ok, nobody should have to encounter this for doing their job. Many people put their lives on the line in their work.
“I’m playing a wizard in Harry Potter. And I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t affect me emotionally.”
Elsewhere in his new interviews, HBO boss Bloys insisted it hasn’t been difficult getting actors to commit to a decade of work for the Potter show, which will have a season dedicated to each of Rowling’s seven books.
He said: “Not really. I mean, I think anytime someone signs on to a TV project, the hope is it’s gonna be [a] job for the next 10 years. I mean, that’s a dream.
“So we didn’t really have any issues with that. I think anybody who’s willing to go up for a television show, it’s possible they’re signing up for a long-term gig.
“So it’s something you have to think about. But we haven’t seen many people say, “Well, I don’t want to do that, because it’s going to be too long.”
Bloys noted that working in television is his “preferred medium” creatively, as it allows people to spend “more time with characters and story”.
He added: “And so if you’ve got a book, let alone a series of books, to kind of arbitrarily say, ‘Well, we’ve got two hours’ you have to make some difficult decisions.
“So the idea is to have the freedom to let it breathe a little bit more and explore the world a bit more.”
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