'Dalgliesh' Season 4 Likely on Hold as Bertie Carvel Chooses 'Harry Potter'

For those continuing to keep track of who will be part of the new TV adaptation of Harry Potter, Warner Bros. announced further casting today, following the debut of the three newcomers playing the central trio a couple of weeks back. American viewers will probably recognize most of the adult actors, even if they're not exactly sure where from, including Katherine Parkinson (Doc Martin), Daniel Rigby (Rivals), Bel Powley (Everything I Know About Love), Johnny Flynn (Emma), and Bertie Carvel (Dalgliesh). That last casting is probably the bitterest for fans to swallow, since it explains why there's been no movement on Dalgliesh Season 4, and probably won't ever be.

The five new adults will all play characters fans easily recognize, with Carvel landing the plum role of Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, Rigby and Powely playing much younger versions of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, Flynn taking on Lucius Malfoy, and Parkinson as Molly Weasley. They were announced alongside four more child actors, all of whom are relative newcomers: Lox Pratt (Draco), Leo Earley (Seamus), Alessia Leoni (Parvati), and Sienna Moosah (Lavender).

I've been doing my best to avoid it, but it's time. For once, I'm not here to discuss the current unpleasantness surrounding the author's public behavior, nor the massive divide it has caused within the fandom, both of which are factors that no one at Warner Bros., HBO, or Max seems to regard as serious obstacles to the show being a hit. Perhaps they are right; I have seen many people argue that her opinions are essentially only common knowledge among the very online, and that millions of young children are introduced to the novels every day. They're not wrong.

No, my question is more fundamental. Has anyone sat down and thought about the logistics of what they've greenlit? There is this attitude among the WBD brass that feels very similar to the one AT&T had when they announced HBO Max: "How hard can it be?" 

(Considering that WBD is now being split in two to be sold off to the highest bidder after two failed ownerships in under eight years, gonna go with "that hard.")

Consider Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone or Chamber of Secrets. Does anyone actually watch the first two films, aside from as Christmas movies? Not really. Like the books themselves, the film franchise didn't start hitting its stride until the third installment. Moreover, although most of the cast are now A-list, the performances by 11-year-olds Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Matthew Lewis, et al. are all one-note at best, smartly captured and edited into a pair of brisk, jaunty, two-and-a-half-hour films by director Chris Columbus, who'd spent nearly his whole career at that point getting performances out of child actors, ever since his debut, Adventures in Babysitting.

Now, consider that Max is going to take those same two stories, which are only tolerable because of how well the performances are framed, and expand each of them into eight to ten hour-long episodes. Oh, and the director, Mark Mylod, may be known for his time on Game of Thrones, but he didn't start directing until Season 5. By that time, all the child actors had long aged into adults, or at least professional veterans with more than half a decade of experience under their belts.

Two seasons worth of eight hours that feature semi-amateur 11-year-olds (who, remember, can only film for two and a half hours a day!) with a director who doesn't have a wealth of experience coaxing watchable performances out of young children. (How hard can it be?)

I feel the need to stop and question the conventional wisdom that this show will be a global hit right out of the box, because it's not just the WBD brass assuming this is a license to print money. With perhaps the exception of American John Lithgow, every single adult actor who has signed on to this is a relative B-lister, especially on this side of the pond, having either starred in series that didn't hit big over here or whose run in a hit show did not garner them the same recognition as say, Hugh Bonneville or Charles Dance. 

These are people who are hungrier than they might like to admit. This is particularly disappointing from Parkinson, a beloved star from Doc Martin, and Carvel, who seems to be walking away from Dalgliesh because it's not a big enough hit right now. That's even though it's a show guaranteed to be still airing on PBS stations in 25 years. Was being a name that sits alongside Roy Marsden and Martin Shaw (not to mention other long-rerunning fan favorites like John Thaw in Morse or Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect) not good enough?

These actors assume signing on to this series will garner enough A-list headlines to get them to the next level, or that their presence can transcend the series. Nick Frost, for example, who has never been able to match his former Hot Fuzz partner Simon Pegg's success, argued to The Observer that he could star in the show as Hagrid without endorsing the author's viewpoints. “She’s allowed her opinion, and I’m allowed mine; they just don’t align in any way, shape, or form.” That may be so, and one hopes Frost continues to espouse his views without interference. But he, like everyone else, is assuming a success that is in no way guaranteed.

Meanwhile, the series continues to lack a coherent synopsis, relying solely on boilerplate declarations of being an "ultra-faithful" adaptation of the books. 

(Is this where I point out that "ultra faithful adaptations" haven't been bringing in audiences to fantasy series since 2015? See also His Dark Materials.)

Three complete newcomers lead the series with Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley, and Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, alongside previously announced adult actors Nick Frost, John Lithgow (The Crown) as Dumbledore, Janet McTeer (MobLand) as McGonagall, Luke Thallon (The Favourite) as Quirrell, Paul Whitehouse (OG Potter films) as Filch, and Paapa Essiedu (The Capture) as Snape. 

(Is this where I point out the optics of James Potter and Marauder friends beating up the school's poor Black student is not going to play the way they think it will in America? No? Ok.)

Francesca Gardiner, whose credits notably include His Dark Materials, will be the lead writer, with Mylod helming multiple installments as lead director. Both executive produce along with Neil Blair, Ruth Kenley-Letts for Brontë Film and TV, David Heyman of Heyday Films, and the author.

The new series will begin filming in mid-2025, with plans to debut Season 1 in 2026 on HBO and Max.