Harry Potter HBO TV Series Casts Nearly Headless Nick, The Sorting Hat

As the Harry Potter HBO series — specifically, its inaugural season "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" — gets closer and closer to its festive release date, we're getting more and more casting information with each passing day. After learning that Charlie Weasley and James and Lily Potter were officially cast for Season 1, now, thanks to an Instagram post from the official HBO and Harry Potter accounts, we know who's set to play some important Hogwarts fixtures.

The Sorting Hat, which "sorts" new students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry into one of four houses — Gryffindor for brave kids, Slytherin for conniving kids, Ravenclaw for smart kids, and Hufflepuff for the other kids — will be voiced by David Threlfall. The rest of the casting news concerns the House ghosts who float through the wizarding institution's halls as well as an important portrait subject. Leo Bill will play Gryffindor's ghost Nearly Headless Nick (the subject of a botched decapitation that makes for a great ghostly party trick), Andrew Brooke will play the Slytherin ghost Bloody Baron, and Daniel Fearn will portray the Fat Friar, Hufflepuff's resident ghost. 

Finally, Laura Smyth rounds out this announcement as the Fat Lady, who lives in a portrait that hides the door to the Gryffindor common room and requires a constantly changing password before she lets anyone enter. (There's no casting news about Ravenclaw's ghost, the Gray Lady ... but she'll prove important in the show's intended final season that will ostensibly adapt "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.")

As I write this, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" drops on HBO in just under two months, and anticipation is definitely starting to build. Besides the Weasley and Potter casting news, the series also dropped a new poster that may feature a new look at Hogwarts itself, and longtime Potterheads have plenty of reasons to get excited.

Still, some skeptics — and I'll include myself in that category! — wonder what this series can really provide that isn't found in the original film franchise aside from a more comprehensive look at some of the books. (The first book did fit rather neatly into a film, as did the second and third books "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," but after that, the page counts become pretty sprawling, and it does objectively make sense to devote entire seasons of a TV show to tomes like "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.") If we're talking about the ghosts, though, it's important to note that the TV show is already adding elements that did get cut from the original films. In addition to the core Hogwarts ghosts, Peter Serafinowicz will play Peeves the Poltergeist, the troublemaking specter at the wizarding school who was technically played by Rik Mayall in the original movie before his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. 

We'll have to wait a bit longer to see this new vision of the wizarding world of Harry Potter, and we can also expect more announcements to keep rolling out in the meantime. "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Christmas Day 2026.