Harry Potter TV series in the works at HBO Max

[Kaypain]

Its not about his acting chops. I could tell within 3 minutes of looking through his IMDB that he’s a top rate talent. Its about the CHARACTER and the fact that unfortunately when you race swap a character you have to take into account what that CHARACTER entails.

Snape is, for all intents and purposes, a Nazi. A repentant Nazi, but a Nazi nonetheless. A Nazi who only reformed because the unrequited love of his life, a WHITE WOMAN, dies violently at the hands of the wizarding equivalent of Hitler. This same character is abused by three white boys, hung from a tree, with his pants stripped down to his ankles. And THEN in a fit of anger, shame, and self loathing he calls the unrequited love of his life the wizarding equivalent of the N word.

As a white character, there is proper context to all of this. As a BLACK character it comez across stereotypical, c00nish, and ill-advised.

Your problem is you're trying too damn hard to equate JK Rowling's world with the real world

He wasn't hung from a tree with rope. He was levitated upside down, a typical prank wizard kids did to each other

James and Snape's rivalry wasn't based on skin color

Snape was Slytherin, James was Gryffindor
Snape was into the dark arts, James hated the dark arts
James was popular and talented in Sports, Snape was talented academically but a outcast until he befriends future death eaters
Snape becomes a death eater, James joins the Order

This doesn't change with a black Snape

But whatever, people just believe that these are just white only roles

 

[Ill-Yaz]

The brother can act and watching this clip, I can see how they choose him. Hes gonna body this role and people need to get over believing that the role of Snape is only a white man's role

Your problem is you're trying too damn hard to equate JK Rowling's world with the real world

He wasn't hung from a tree with rope. He was levitated upside down, a typical prank wizard kids did to each other

James and Snape's rivalry wasn't based on skin color

Snape was Slytherin, James was Gryffindor
Snape was into the dark arts, James hated the dark arts
James was popular and talented in Sports, Snape was talented academically but a outcast until he befriends future death eaters
Snape becomes a death eater, James joins the Order

This doesn't change with a black Snape

But whatever, people just believe that these are just white only roles

What the fukk are you blabbering on about?

Snape is described as the following in the books-
a thin man with greasy, shoulder-length black hair, a large, hooked nose, and sallow (pale, sickly) skin.

Now tell me how the fukk does this person fit the above description

It's a mockery. Plain and simple.

And rest assured I will REFUSE to watch this series

 

[Kaypain]

What the fukk are you blabbering on about?

Snape is described as the following in the books-
a thin man with greasy, shoulder-length black hair, a large, hooked nose, and sallow (pale, sickly) skin.

Now tell me how the fukk does this person fit the above description

It's a mockery. Plain and simple.

And rest assured I will REFUSE to watch this series

I don't give a fukk what you refuse or don't refuse to watch white boy

I'm done arguing with you crackers over this

 

[Luke Cage]

it doesn't really matter what the race of the actor is. This is acting after all. make believe.

And to be honest race swapping has been a thing since forever. They just execute it differently now.

Back in the day, if they race swapped they did, pretty much the whole cast and just made a black version of the white movie. Think Brandy in cinderella, or diana ross in the Wiz.

If they kept the movie mostly white and added a black actor, they generally made a lesser known character black, or created a new one. but they usually just did this with original adaptations that had never been filmed yet. Sam Jackson has done this twice successfully. The character he played in jurassic park was described similar to snape in the book. But nobody had grown attached to a white actor in the role yet. He did more blatantly with Nick Fury, but even in that case mostly nobody saw the white version in film.

Now they will just straight up recast an iconic white actor with a black one. And audiences generally aren't going to take it well. In fact they often don't take it well if you do it with a white actor either. Think Han Solo, or Superman. So not only is it going to be bias for the actors race, but there will be element of simple fandom resisting it as well. I think for a character like snape audience will reject anyone who replaces Alan Rickman unless you manage to find a person that does a great job convincing you they are a younger version of alan rickman as snape. (example for this being execute well would be obiwan)