HBO has been making fresh announcements about its Harry Potter, The Last Of Us and Euphoria shows, amongst others.
If you’re a fan of the television put out by HBO then you’ll likely find something in here to catch your interest.
Firstly, Deadline has broken a story which claims that John Lithgow is in final talks to take on the role of Albus Dumbledore in HBO’s upcoming adaptation of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books.
Despite Mark Rylance and Mark Strong being named as potential candidates in the past, it appears that Lithgow may have ultimately snagged the part, placing him in an esteemed pantheon of actors who have also played the Hogwart’s headmaster, including Richard Harris, Michael Gambon and Jude Law.
HBO hasn’t confirmed the story, instead declining to comment when approached by the outlet. Given the outlet’s source is likely to be fairly official, don’t be surprised when this is announced as a done deal.
In ore official news, HBO’s Head of Drama Francesca Orsi has been out and about promoting the release of the third season of the brilliant satire, The White Lotus.
While on promotional duties she’ ha’s revealed that the upcoming third season of Euphoria may well be the last, stating: “We’ve talked about it, I don’t think anything is over until it’s over, but it’s been discussed that this is the end. I think you will be very satisfied with this season, and how we bring each of the characters’ whole narrative.”
There’s more too: fans of HBO’s zombie drama The Last Of Us will be excited about the appearance of the show’s second season later this year, but Orsi confirmed a comment previously made by showrunners, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann – that being an indication that the show is planned to run for four seasons.
Orsi confirmed as much, saying that “we don’t have a complete or final plan, but I think it’s looking like four seasons. I wouldn’t want to confirm that, but it’s looking like this season and then two more seasons after this and we’re done.”
That will certainly be intriguing for the fans of the video game who have so far gotten to play two games which we imagine will line up fairly evenly with the show’s first two seasons. Could a third and fourth series of television give away the future of the game series in a similar fashion to the way that Game Of Thrones did for readers of George RR Martin’s series of fantasy novels? It is starting to look that way.
Speaking of Martin’s Game Of Thrones, Orsi also confirmed that the upcoming spin-off show, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms is planned to receive three series, one for each novella. “You’re going be so impressed by Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell as Dunk and Egg, the two leads,” says Orsi. “So much so that we’re already planning on how do we build this for the three seasons in total. We’re not picking it up officially, but it’s looking very good. We’re looking at it as a holistic piece, Seasons 2 and 3, because there’s three novellas.”
Exciting developments, and you can tide yourself over until these shows arrive by watching the new season of The White Lotus when it arrives in the UK next week.
