John Lithgow Responds to Criticism of His Dumbledore Casting: “I Will Do My Best” (2025)

John Lithgow is looking forward to playing Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’s headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, in the upcoming Harry Potter TV series.

Lithgow recently told BBC’s The One Show that he’s “very excited” yet “very intimidated” to be the next actor to take on a role which has been played before in the Harry Potter films by Richard Harris (Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets), Michael Gambon (Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Deathly Hallows: Part 2) and by Jude Law in the Fantastic Beasts movies (Crimes of Grindelwald, Secrets of Dumbledore).

“I will be following the great Michael Gambon,” Lithgow said. “I’m not an Englishman, although I’ve played one on TV. I remind everyone that I did play Winston Churchill on The Crown and did just fine.”

The Conclave actor continued to explain how there’s been criticism of his casting because he is an American and the previous actors are from the U.K.

“It’s an enormous thrill. But I know there were plenty of people appalled that an American should be hired to play the ultimate English wizard. But, I will do my best,” Lithgow said.

While it’s long been rumored that Lithgow was going to be cast, last month, he said, “The overall concept of this entire reboot ofHarry Potteris an entire season devoted to a single novel. So, he was preparing by reading “halfway through the second”novel at the time.

Earlier this week, HBO unveiled the official casting with Nick Frost as Hogwarts gamekeeper Rubeus Hagrid, Janet McTeer as Professor Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Potions Professor Severus Snape, Luke Thallon as Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor Quirinus Quirrell and Paul Whitehouse as caretaker Argus Filch.