John Lithgow Is Reportedly Nearing A Deal To Play Dumbledore In The Harry Potter Series, And I Can’t Believe How Scattered Fans’ Reactions Are

The 2025 TV schedule is still reeling in the wake of FX’s The Old Man being canceled. The Jeff Bridges drama co-starred beloved actor John Lithgow, a presence whom fans have always enjoyed on the big and small screen. Well if the rumors are true, the Conclave co-star might be headed back to TV work in the near future, as he’s reportedly in final negotiations to play Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore for Max’s Harry Potter series.

Previous speculation on this role saw Mark Rylance as a Dumbledore contender. However, the latest from Deadline has The Crown vet now supposedly two steps away from becoming Hogwarts’ top wizard. As you’ll see from the social media reactions sampled below, though, these whispers have inspired a wide variety of responses.

Here are some of the more negative ones:

• “Trinity Killer as Dumbledore is wild.” - @DexDraven
• “lord farquaad as dumbledore is crazy casting.” - @americanrequiem
• “Did we run out of British people” - @msnetiker
• "Love Lithgow but this has to be the absolute worst casting I could imagine for Dumbledore." -@HillbllyAnalyst

So, that's the camp that is not here for this. However, there are plenty of fans who are quite excited and intrigued by this news, as you can see below:

• “I’d love this. Dumbledore was an eccentric goofball in the books and that was missing in the movies.” - @CortFreeman
• "Weird choice. Maybe it could work but still odd..." -@1MrPapi
• “People, please watch the reboot Perry Mason, Dexter, and The Crown if you want to see John Lithgow in a serious role. I have faith he can pull off Dumbledore. He's the right age. Lithgow is more than just Lord Farquaad. Expand your horizons.” - @gnpws13
• "This is actually a perfect casting." -@colinkorbelas

That is a really varied spread of reactions to a potential twist in what we know about Harry Potter’s Max series. Personally, I’m on the Pro-Lithgow side of the argument, mostly because he is an actor we know to have a mastery over accent work. Just watch The Crown and that will become clear.

However, the one major factor that sees John Lithgow’s casting looking like a brilliant move is the fact that both cinematic Dumbledores were played off as figures of authority. We barely ever got to see Hogwarts’ headmaster be the silly, goofy man he truly is. So as producer David Heyman is promising a Harry Potter series truer to the books, Lithgow potentially being in the mix sounds like a step in that direction.

Of course, HBO brass are still keeping mum on what may or may not be going on with its streaming series. This means you should treat these rumblings as you would a carton of Bertie Botts’ Every Flavor Beans: with great care and skepticism. And to those against John Lithgow potentially being brought in for Harry Potter, you should consult the words of Ralph Fiennes, as his Conclave co-star and Potter franchise alum’s remarks on keeping an open mind should apply to the casting process as well.