Paapa Essiedu knew taking on the role of Severus Snape would be a challenge. What he didn’t expect was someone threatening to kill him for it.
The British actor, cast as the famously complex potions master in HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series, spoke publicly for the first time about the scale of racist abuse he has received since his casting was announced. In an interview with The Times of London published Saturday, Essiedu revealed that strangers have written to him on Instagram saying they will come to his house and murder him. One message told him directly: quit the project, or face violence.
‘I’m playing a wizard in Harry Potter,‘ he told the outlet. ‘And I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t affect me emotionally.’
Essiedu, 35, is best known to American audiences through the acclaimed BBC drama I May Destroy You. When HBO announced his casting as Snape in April 2025, the backlash was swift. Snape was portrayed across all eight films by the late Alan Rickman, whose arrogant demeanor and deep, measured voice became inseparable from the character for millions of fans. Some critics framed their objections in terms of book accuracy. Others were far more direct about their actual reason, Essiedu is Black, and Snape in the novels is described as pale.
Fellow cast member Jason Isaacs, who played Lucius Malfoy in the original films and has remained close to the franchise, called the criticism out. At a fan convention last summer, he said the people targeting Essiedu online ‘are being racist’ and described Essiedu as one of the finest actors he has ever encountered.
Related: Why Harry Potter’s New Hagrid Wrote One Word 7,000 Times
Essiedu said he has not reported the threats to police. He told The Times he doubts a short sentence for whoever sent the messages would bring him any peace. Staying offline entirely isn’t a real option either because people message him to ask if he’s all right, which means he learns about the threats regardless.
What does help, he said, is remembering why the role matters to him. As a child, his mother brought him to the public library during school holidays because childcare wasn’t affordable. He discovered J.K. Rowling’s novels there. He never saw the films. He fell in love with the books.
‘I would imagine myself at Hogwarts on broomsticks,’ he said. ‘The idea that a kid like me can see themselves represented in that world? That’s motivation to not be intimidated.’
He has signed on for ten years of work. By the time the series wraps its adaptation of all seven novels, Essiedu will be 45. The commitment is significant by any measure. But he said the abuse has made him more resolved, not less. He wants to make Snape genuinely his own, separate from Rickman’s legacy while honoring the character’s depth.
‘The abuse fuels me,’ he said.
The HBO Harry Potter series is expected to debut in 2027. John Lithgow will play Dumbledore, Nick Frost takes on Hagrid, and Janet McTeer is cast as Professor McGonagall. Essiedu’s co-star John Lithgow said separately that he briefly considered stepping away from the project over the controversy surrounding J.K. Rowling, suggesting that even the show’s most established names have wrestled with the pressures surrounding this production.
For Essiedu, the answer is simple. The kid in the library had a right to imagine himself at Hogwarts. And now he gets to be there.
🎬SIGN UP for Parade’s Daily newsletter to get the latest pop culture news & celebrity interviews delivered right to your inbox🎬
