Bosses for HBO’s new Harry Potter series have beefed up security on set after actor Paapa Essiedu – who is playing Professor Severus Snape on the show – was hit by death threats
Paapa Essiedu will play Professor Severus Snape, a role previously taken on by Alan Rickman(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Harper’s Bazaar UK)
Bosses on the set of the new Harry Potter series have increased security after one of its star received death threats. Actor Paapa Essiedu, who will play professor Severus Snape in the HBO remake, has been hit by vile death threats.
The role of Snape was played by the late Alan Rickman in the hit movie series, but after he was announced in the role Essiedu received racist abuse online, with messages saying “Quit or I’ll murder you.”
Network boss Casey Bloys told Variety: “With all actors on any kind of big IP shows – and this is obviously one of those where you’ve got, you know, passionate fans, people with a lot of opinions – it can get scary in places.
“So for any show like that, we anticipated it and tried to have training, you know, best practices in terms of social media and how to handle it. And obviously we’ve got a serious security team. So unfortunately, it was something that we thought might happen and we just try to be as careful as we can.”
Essiedu has been open about the horrifying death threats he has received in the wake of his casting.
“The reality is that if I look at Instagram I will see somebody saying, ‘I’m going to come to your house and kill you.’ While I hope I’ll be okay, nobody should have to encounter this for doing their job. Many people put their lives on the line in their work. I’m playing a wizard in Harry Potter. And I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t affect me emotionally,” he said.
“But the abuse fuels me. And makes me more passionate about making this character my own, because I think of how I felt as a kid. I would imagine myself at Hogwarts on broomsticks, and the idea that a kid like me can see themselves represented in that world? That’s motivation to not be intimidated by someone saying they’d rather I died instead of doing work I’m going to be really proud of.”
However, he has not reported any of the death threats to the police. He added: “I don’t think some 17-year-old boy being put in jail for two weeks for threatening to murder me would actually make me feel any better.”
Jason Isaacs, who starred as Lucius Malfoy in the original films, hit back at the racist comments from trolls and praised Essiedu as “one of the best actors”. He added: “I’ve seen some people online who are being rude about him. What they’re being is racist.”
The new HBO series is an adaption of the original novels from JK Rowling, with Dominic McLaughlin playing Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley.
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