Warwick Davis is back in the HBO Harry Potter series cast, returning to the franchise after playing Charms Professor Flitwick and Goblin Griphook in the films. He said the part has been “one of my favourite characters to play in my career,” and called the new offer “a huge honour.”
“To be asked to come back and play him again for the series was a huge honour, and I’m excited to retell these stories because they’re fantastic stories,” Davis told the Press Association. The return gives the reboot a direct link to the film era while the rest of the cast is being rebuilt around a debut season that runs eight episodes at one hour each.
HBO Harry Potter and Warner cast
HBO has already filled key roles around Davis with Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley, and Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger. For a franchise relaunch, that is a deliberate mix: one familiar face from the films and a new front line for the core trio and the adults around them.
The series is also extending beyond the first season. Orson Matthews appears as Oliver Wood, Asha Soetan as Angelina Johnson, Eire Farrell as Katie Bell, D’Angelou Osei-Kissiedu as Graham Montague, Dylan Heath as Adrian Pucey, and Cornelius Brandreth as Terence Higgs, while Rafe Spall has been added as Arthur Weasley in Harry Potter Season 2. That kind of staggered casting usually tells you the production is building season by season rather than treating the launch as a one-off event.
Kit Harington and Nicholas Hoult
Kit Harington was chosen to portray Gilderoy Lockhart after Nicholas Hoult stepped down because of scheduling conflicts. In the same rollout, Molly Hewitt-Richards joined Harry Potter Season 2 as Moaning Myrtle and Jasper Ambrose as Colin Creevey, which makes the casting picture look less like a single announcement and more like a slow assembly of the world around the lead trio.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is set to debut on December 25, 2026, on HBO Max. With less than three months before launch in the timeline given here, Davis is the only original film-franchise cast member named as returning, and that is the clearest signal that the series wants continuity without leaning on nostalgia alone.
December 25, 2026
The practical takeaway is simple: the cast list is no longer just about who is playing the three children. Davis’ return gives HBO one recognizable bridge to the films, while the new ensemble shows the production is still making room for later stories and later seasons. For viewers, that means the reboot is being built as a long-form adaptation, not a one-season retread.
