Harry Potter Officially Casts Its Lord Voldemort for Season 2

HBO has found its Dark Lord. Billy Barratt will play Tom Riddle in Season 2 of the Harry Potter series, making him the first actor confirmed as Voldemort in the reboot. Season 2 adapts Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, where Riddle turns up as a former Hogwarts student.

Harry comes across an old diary belonging to him, and what the book shows about an incident at the school fifty years earlier drives much of the season’s mystery. Christian Coulson played Riddle in the 2002 film. Ralph Fiennes took over as the adult Voldemort from Goblet of Fire onward, which means another actor would probably be cast in the adult role in the show as well.

Who Are Harry Potter Season 2’s Latest Cast Additions?

HBO announced three names on September 4 (via Variety). Billy Barratt takes Tom Riddle, Lenny Rush plays Dobby, and Bonnie Hill steps in as Ginny Weasley. Barratt has some solid acting credits. He is the youngest International Emmy winner in history. He was just 13 when he won for the BBC drama Responsible Child.

He has since played Caspar Morrow across Apple TV’s Invasion, led last year’s horror film Bring Her Back, and turned up in Kraven the Hunter, Crater, and Mary Poppins Returns.

Rush is 17 and already a BAFTA winner, best known as Ollie in Daisy May Cooper’s Am I Being Unreasonable?. His other credits include Doctor Who, Dodger, Best Interests, and Enola Holmes 2. Dobby was a CGI creation voiced by Toby Jones in the films, and HBO has not said whether the show will use animation, motion capture, or prosthetics to build the house-elf around a live actor.

Hill is the least established of the three, with Girl Troop versus Aliens among her credits. Her casting is also a replacement rather than a new role. Gracie Cochrane plays Ginny in Season 1 but stepped away from the series afterwards, with her family citing “unforeseen circumstances”. Bonnie Wright played the role in the movies.

The trio joins Kit Harington, confirmed in late August as Gilderoy Lockhart. Notably, the show keeps casting younger than the films did. Christian Coulson was 23 when he played the 16-year-old Riddle, while Barratt is close to the character’s actual age.

Harry Potter Season 2 Allegedly Faces Issues in Production

Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter | Credits: HBO

HBO’s plan was to shoot the seasons back-to-back at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, keeping the young cast close to their characters’ ages. According to a report in The Sun, that plan has hit trouble. A source told the paper that filming was meant to begin in August and that dates had been set, but the scripts were not finished in time.

The same source claimed that “everyone at Warner Bros is up in arms,” that the cost implications are significant, and that major scenes have allegedly been pushed back two months to October. The casting changes, including that of Harington replacing Nicholas Hoult, have allegedly caused some trouble.

The report also mentioned that props had been disappearing from the set, including books, wands, pumpkins, and food from a Halloween feast staged in the Great Hall. A notice was allegedly put up on set about the missing items.

However, the official position is that filming of Season 2 is underway and on schedule. Season 1 arrives on December 25, so the studio still has room if any of these alleged issues affect a release date.

Who are you most looking forward to seeing in Season 2? Let us know in the comments below!