MOVIE NEWS – There are plenty of things I could overlook in the upcoming Harry Potter series on HBO Max, but turning Voldemort into a woman isn’t one of them. Fresh rumors suggest the streamer is holding mixed casting sessions for the Dark Lord’s role.

This is a tricky subject to tackle. How do I explain that the issue with Voldemort as a woman isn’t about gender itself, but about how casually the canon gets tossed aside? Wait—that’s exactly it. According to new online buzz, HBO Max may be auditioning both men and women for the role of Lord (Lady?) Voldemort, raising plenty of doubts. There are changes I don’t mind. After all, adaptations by definition involve some departures from the source material. But if this rumor proves true, it could be a much bigger problem.

Lady Voldemort Could Become a Reality

The notion of Voldemort being reimagined as a woman remains unconfirmed, especially after ClintonMurphy’s name was taken out of consideration. True or not, it’s worth thinking about. We live in times when countless reworks have caused fan backlash (sometimes deservedly, sometimes not). Disney’s remakes prove audiences don’t easily accept sweeping changes to beloved stories. At the same time, times do evolve, and new projects often reflect social transformations. Could you imagine Popeye today? In the original, Olive was constantly beaten—something no remake would portray. Or look at the infamous “Censored Eleven,” eleven Warner cartoons removed for racist and classist depictions.

Still, today’s concern isn’t about social commentary or inclusion. It’s about what it means when HBO Max is so willing to discard canon—it suggests the series may not be as strong as promised. I don’t doubt that brilliant actresses exist (Tilda Swinton springs to mind) who could rival Ralph Fiennes’ take on the character, but that misses the point.

Voldemort’s being male is tied to the story, and changing it begs the question: why? When you dive into character building, such shifts risk altering far more than expected.

Take his name, Tom Marvolo Riddle. We know his mother, Merope Gaunt, came from a once-proud line of Salazar Slytherin’s descendants, while his Muggle father, Tom Riddle, was ensnared by a love spell. The child born of this obsession carried his father’s human name. One of Voldemort’s earliest steps toward forging his darker identity was rejecting that name. Sure, they could invent a female counterpart, but is it really necessary to twist the origins so drastically? Would they reverse the parents’ roles or erase his backstory altogether?

Then there’s his relationship with Bellatrix Lestrange, which produced a daughter, Delphini. There was no love, only offspring. Delphini may not be widely known, but she exists in the canon of The Cursed Child. Would HBO Max also rewrite Bellatrix, erase Delphini, or pull a “Star Wars” move with some bizarre origin like midi-chlorians? They could invent anything—but should they?

The Harry Potter universe already has plenty of compelling female figures (Hermione, Ginny, Fleur, Tonks, Luna…), not to mention the saga’s most despised villain, Dolores Umbridge. What troubles me further is HBO Max’s own promise: the series was marketed as faithful to the novels. So how is it that the main trio looks nearly identical to their book descriptions, Hagrid resembles his film incarnation, and the Charms Professor is played by the same actor—yet they’d consider rewriting something this fundamental?

Even the casting of Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape sparked debate. I stayed quiet then, believing skin tone didn’t alter the character’s essence. But this? This would break canon itself, and that’s much harder to accept. I already lived through sweeping changes with Star Wars—I don’t want another round.

Source: 3djuegos