Harry Potter series conjures up a rumored role for Mark Rylance

HBO’s invisibility cloak is starting to come off of the top-secret Harry Potter series casting process, and it makes sense that we would start with our fifth (fifth!) Dumbledore in less than 25 years. If you’re somehow able to erase the memory of both original Dumbledores long enough to get excited about a new one (not to mention Jude Law’s young Dumbledore and Toby Regbo’s even younger Dumbledore in the ill-fated Fantastic Beasts series), we have a potential name: Mark Rylance. While the studio hasn’t officially entered negotiations with the Wolf Hall actor yet, Variety reports that he’s “at the top of the casting wishlist.” Apparently Warner Bros. is currently reaching out to gauge interest and scheduling ability.

Of course, HBO is keeping its wizard trading cards close to the chest. “We appreciate that such a high profile series will draw a lot of rumor and speculation. As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalize deals,” a representative told Variety. (Rylance’s reps did not provide a comment.) Clearly nothing has been finalized yet, as this is the first name we’ve heard in the mix since the series was announced back in 2023. In September, the studio put forth an opening casting call to find its Harry, Ron, and Hermione, so there’s a good chance those won’t be familiar names at all.

Of course, we’ve already had not one, but two Dumbledores (in his headmaster capacity at least) onscreen—not to mention very culturally ingrained images of the golden trio, Malfoy, Neville, Voldemort, and all the other characters as well. Richard Harris played the white-haired wizard in the first two films, before Michael Gambon took over the role following Harris’ death in 2002. And now, whether it ends up being Rylance or not, we’ll have another. There is one small silver lining to all of this, at least: Saoirse Ronan may get her chance to star in a Harry Potter project, after all.