'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' cast photos released
Two sets of photographs featuring some cast members of the play 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' in costume has been released, less than two months before the play is set to open in London.
The play, set 19 years after where the movie series ended, casts Jamie Parker as Harry, Poppy Miller as Ginny, Sam Clemmett as their son Albus Severus Potter, Paul Thornley as Ron, Noma Dumezweni as Hermione and Cherrelle Skeete as their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley.
Previews of the play are scheduled to begin at London's Palace Theatre on 7 June.
The first set of photographs revealed on Tuesday show Jamie Parker as Harry Potter, complete with the famous lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.
"He simply is Harry now. There's a kind of relief in watching him, he gets it so right," author JK Rowling said when asked about Parker’s transformation.
"It's a unique gig in the sense that you have seven volumes of back story that you get to bring on with you. And we were all very keen to make sure that the first time you see Harry it just feels right," said Parker.
Sam Clemmett, revealed as the character Albus Severus Potter, will be playing the cursed child referred to in the title.
JK Rowling said: "There's much I could say about Sam-as-Albus, but we'd be into spoiler territory so quickly I'll just say we couldn't have cast better."
Albus wears dark Hogwarts school robes in the portraits which give no hint as to which "house" he ends up in.
In the final chapter of book The Deathly Hallows, his character was fearful that the sorting hat would place him in Slytherin.
In a second set of photographs released today, the casts of Ron, Hermione and Rose were revealed.
Dumezweni said: "Every time I'm in the auditorium I turn around to people or say to myself, 'I'm in that show, I'm in that show.' I want to see it so much. I am so proud that I am in it."
JK Rowling said: "I saw Noma workshop the part and when [director] John Tiffany told me he'd cast her, I was overjoyed. She gets Hermione inside out."
"It's 19 years later when the play begins. Ron is married to Hermione Granger and they're now the Granger-Weasleys," Paul Thornley said.
"Our magnificent daughter Rose Granger-Weasley is about to start at Hogwarts, which is obviously a big day for everyone."
JK Rowling said that Rose takes after her mother, but is "more secure, more grounded."
"She was born to wizards and knows her place in the world. Cherrelle plays her perfectly: bossy but deeply loveable," she said.
"Putting on my uniform, ready to go to Hogwarts, and seeing everyone else in their uniform was exciting. I've been looking at it every day in the wardrobe department, waiting for the day I can get on the Hogwarts Express," said Cherrelle Skeete.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the eighth story in the Harry Potter series and the first official story of the franchise to be presented on stage.
It is one play but will be presented in two parts. Both parts will run in the theatre simultaneously, split between matinee and evening performances.
The final photos of cast members in costume will be released on Thursday.