HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ Series Is Officially Getting a Major Upgrade for Season 2

Published Sep 16, 2026, 5:11 PM EDT

Michael Hein has been covering entertainment, fandom news, and trending topics since 2016 on outlets including Rogues Portal, PopCulture.com, and ComicBook.com. He has provided live coverage of red carpet premieres, conventions, and up-fronts, and has interviewed major stars including Charles Dance, Patrick Stewart, and Chloe Sevigny. An avid fiction reader and writer, Michael has been diving deep into all the biggest book-to-screen adaptations of the last decade, from Game of Thrones to Foundation.

HBO's Harry Potter remake has a lot to live up to — widely beloved books, cherished film adaptations, and one of the most successful media franchises of all time. Re-doing the story as a TV series provides a chance for new writers, producers, artists, and actors to get their hands on this material, and the show just announced several newcomers to the cast for Season 2. Jasper Ambrose will play the underclassman Colin Creevey, and Molly Hewitt-Richards will play Moaning Myrtle. The biggest news is that actor Rafe Spall will play Arthur Weasley. Spall is a busy man right now, and he's on a roll with lauded performances in Trying, Under Salt Marsh, Secret Service, and Bait.

Landing Spall is huge for the Harry Potter re-make, especially at this time in his career. Spall's performance in the thriller series Under Salt Marsh was essential to getting the show renewed, and he has some equally anticipated work on the horizon. He brings major streaming star power to the series, and the role of Arthur Weasley is a great place to put a beloved actor. However, Spall has a lot of other obligations right now, and Harry Potter is expected to be a demanding project. Hopefully, Spall can keep up as the story goes on.

Rafe Spall is Arthur Weasley

As mentioned above, Spall has been firing on all cylinders lately, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Viewers in the U.K. where he hails from are raving about the new Sky Atlantic crime thriller Under Salt Marsh, which is not yet available to watch in the U.S. However, Spall is still a familiar face here thanks to Apple TV's Trying, where he and Esther Smith play a couple struggling to conceive a child. This year, he also appeared in the new Prime Video dramedy Bait, but fans may already recognize him from more mainstream roles like Eli Mills in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, for example.

Spall's character won't appear in Harry Potter Season 1 — Harry (Dominic McLaughlin) first meets Arthur at the beginning of the second book when he visits Ron (Alastair Stout) and the twins break him out of the Dursleys' home and bring him to The Burrow. Filming for Harry Potter Season 2 is already well underway, though so far it's not clear when the second season will premiere. However, Spall already has two highly anticipated performances coming out in 2027 — he will play Sherlock Holmes in the Sky series The Death of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the Prime Minister of the U.K. in Steven Moffat's new dramedy Number 10.

Spall has time for all this other work now as Arthur Weasley develops in the background of the plot. Spall is an excellent choice to play the affable Weasley patriarch. He has shown an ability to play a kind, trusting person and even the butt of a joke from time to time without coming off as stupid or incompetent. Arthur can be distracted by his love of studying Muggle culture, but as the story progresses he proves to be a very capable wizard and an asset in the fight against Voldemort.

If there's one issue fans may take with Spall's casting, it's his age. The actor is currently 43 years old, which is on the young side to have seven children all over the age of 10, no matter how you do the math. However, this is a great opportunity for the makeup artists and costume designers on the series to work their magic on Spall.

'Harry Potter' Could Demand Too Much From Spall

Image via HBO

Spall's current popularity is likely part of the reason he was cast in this role, but it could also be an obstacle down the road. For now, Spall can likely get away with short visits to set each season to film a few limited scenes where he may appear, but Arthur becomes a much more active participant in the story later on. Harry Potter is an inflexible production by design — it needs to film consecutively while the cast still looks the appropriate age for their roles, so Spall will need to schedule his other work around the Wizarding World.

If HBO doesn't see that as an issue for Spall, it may be a tiny bit more evidence that the network is tempering its expectations for the Harry Potter series overall. In an interview with Deadline last week, HBO executive Casey Bloys acknowledged that the show will not be able to keep up its breakneck production schedule forever, and it may not go for a full decade as producers hope. He said that for now, he and the producers are "thinking about it season by season," not trying to plan for a decade-long marathon.

Like all stars of this show, Spall will undoubtedly face some disappointment from fans who are boycotting Harry Potter due to author J.K. Rowling's public campaign against transgender rights. However, Bloys reiterated that Rowling is "absolutely" involved in the creation of this series, and claimed that her rhetoric has not caused any difficulty in casting the series — "Not even a little bit."

Harry Potter Season 2 is filming now in the U.K. while the series premiere is approaching fast. The show will kick off on Christmas Day on HBO and HBO Max here in the U.S. There's no word yet on when Season 2 will follow, nor when Season 3 will begin production.

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  Dominic McLaughlin

  Harry Potter

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  Minerva McGonagall

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  Albus Dumbledore

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  Hagrid

Harry Potter is HBO's adaptation of the iconic Wizarding World book series by J.K. Rowling. The first season, The Philosopher's Stone, follows the titular Harry Potter as he discovers his magical potential, enrolls at Hogwarts, and begins to uncover a sinister force.