AUDE GUERRUCCI / AFP
Oscar winner for “Bridge of Spies”, actor Mark Rylance could play Dumbledore in the HBO Max series.
TV SERIES – Like magic. Thirteen years after the broadcast of the last Harry Potter film, the most famous magic school will soon reopen its doors. If the series HBO Max planned for seven seasons is still looking for the next Harry, Ron and Hermioneshe would nevertheless be on the verge of finding her Dumbledore in the person of Mark Rylance.
The 64-year-old actor is the big favorite to play the director of Hogwarts. “Warner Bros. Television has not yet entered into negotiations with the actor, but the studio has contacted the actor to gauge his interest and availability,” however specifies the specialized magazine Variety. If the information were to be confirmed, it would be to the great damnation of Gary Oldman (Sirius Black in the Harry Potter films) who said he was ready to reprise the role if called.
At 64, Mark Rylance arrives at a “believable” age to play Dumbledore. This role was first played by Richard Harris in the first two installments of the original saga released. But after the actor’s death in 2002, the theatrical release dateHarry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, it was Michael Gambon who played the mentor of the young wizard in the six parts that followed. Jude Law then played a younger version of the professor in the final two films of the spin-off saga Fantastic Beasts.
A winning return
Mark Rylance, who began his career in the late 80s, was very close to ending his career in 2010 after the filming of Blitz with Jason Statham. “I don’t think it’s necessary to touch on all areas,” he confided to the weekly The Big Issue.
The actor, multiple Tony Award winners for his theater roles, is then very close to abandoning cinema and television for good. “Of course nature hates a vacuum and suddenly (Steven) Spielberg was invited to a play I was in and all this happened,” he said in the same interview. A triple collaboration with the director which will allow him to definitively make his mark on the big screen.
The British actor won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2016 for his performance as a Soviet spy in The Bridge of Spiesbefore playing the Good Big Giant in the film of the same name, then the creator of the game Ready Player One.
Since then, he has been seen at Christopher Nolan (Dunkirk), Aaron Sorkin (The Chicago Seven), Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) and again Luca Guadagnino (Bones and All). He also stood out in British mini-series In the shadow of the Tudors (2015) or The Undeclared War (2022).
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