The New Dumbledore Actor Is A Sci-Fi And Fantasy Legend
We may not need or want a new actor in this role. But John Lithgow has got the resume.
Well before there was ever such a thing as Hogwarts, there was John Lithgow. And now, after several decades of being one of the greatest science fiction and fantasy actors in the business, Lithgow has been given the keys to Hogwarts. Like it or not, the HBO Harry Potter TV series is going forward, and, the very first cast member has been revealed: Lithgow will play the role of Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
Technically, Lithgow will be the fourth actor to play Dumbledore, following in the footsteps of Richard Harris, Michael Gambon, and Jude Law. And for a certain set of young people, he could also become the definitive Dumbledore, since the new series is set to reboot the entire franchise for an entirely new generation. And whether or not older Potterheads are ready for this or not is hardly the question. It’s happening. And Lithgow certainly has the genre pedigree to get the job done.
In an exclusive interview with Screenrant, Lithgow seemed to confirm that the part of Dumbledore was his, noting that “it was not an easy decision because it's going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I'm afraid.” He also seemed to confirm the casting saying “I'll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I've said yes.”
If confirmed, his casting won’t be without controversy. Some view supporting all things Harry Potter as a support of the fortunes of J.K. Rowling and her controversial views. This gets all the trickier when you consider that Lithgow played a trans woman in The World According to Garp in 1982.
Today, at 79 years old, it’s hard to know exactly what role Lithgow is best known for. For genre fans, his work in the 80s was unparalleled; from rebooting a role originated by William Shatner in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) to Dr. Emilio Lizardo in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) to the patriarch in Harry and the Hendersons, Lithgow’s range within various fantastical worlds is shockingly huge.
John Lithgow at the premiere of Interstellar in 2014.
But his genre cred doesn’t stop in the 80s. From 1996 to 2001, Lithgow was the lead in the sci-fi sitcom 3rd Rock from the Sun, all about a family of aliens, forced to disguise themselves as humans. For those that loved it, was basically Frasier meets Home Improvement, but with aliens. And even in this role, Lithgow brought paradoxical nuance to a part that worked based on broad comedy. By the 2000s, Lithgow helped reboot the Apes franchise with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and then, made an excellent turn in the 2014 epic, Interstellar.
This is all to say that Lithgow has been an elder statesman of sci-fi and fantasy for quite a long time. As Dumbledore, he’ll become the first American to take on the role, and arguably, the quirkiest actor to put on the robe and the hat, too. While Harris brought gravitas, and Gambon brought playfulness, the hope with Lithgow as Dumbledore is that he’ll fill the role with the pure weirdness of the wizard that exists in the books. While it's tempting to think of Dumbledore as a discount Gandalf, the reality is that he’s far more conniving and contradictory than Gandalf. Dumbledore is a disturbing, charming, and bizarre fantasy character. And if anyone can capture those competing characteristics and bring something new to the role, it's John Lithgow.
