Castium Revelio: Opera, Anime, Monsters, and More!
by Mary Wojcicki · May 22, 2021
It’s time for another of edition MuggleNet’s Casting News, your source for the most recent information on the latest projects from our Wizarding World alumni. Let’s go! Castium Revelio!
Variety notes, "Given the format of the show, which revolves around a talent agency with celebrity clients, more household names are expected to be announced soon." This could suggest that Bonham Carter and Macdonald will be appearing as themselves.
Jamie Campbell Bower, who appeared as young Gellert Grindelwald in both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, will appear in the fourth season of Stranger Things, as we first reported late last year. The fourth season of the series will premiere sometime in late 2021 or early 2022, according to Nilsen Report. A teaser trailer for the season was released on May 6, but Campbell Bower does not appear in it.
Stephen Fry (the narrator of the Harry Potter audiobooks from Bloomsbury) will take on another narration role. This time, though, it will be for the premiere of Oedipus Rex from the Los Angeles Opera – also known as simply LA Opera – on June 6. BroadwayWorld notes that this will be LA Opera's "first public, in-person performance—and the first indoor performance at The Music Center—since March 8, 2020" and that COVID-related health and safety precautions will be in place.
While tickets are free, a strict protocol for entry has been created using the LA County Department of Public Health's current restrictions for live events. To attend 'Oedipus Rex,' audience members must either be able to prove that they were fully vaccinated for COVID-19 at least two weeks before the performance (i.e., on or before May 22) or show proof of a negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of the performance. Fully vaccinated audience members will be seated in the orchestra section of the theater; those with negative test results will be assigned socially distant seating in Founders Circle. (Vaccinated audience members may choose to be seated in the more socially distant Founders Circle.)
More details on ticketing are available from BroadwayWorld. The performance will be available to stream via LA Opera's On Now platform beginning June 17.
Additionally, Fry had a role as a guest star on a recent episode of The Simpsons. Bubble Blabber, reviewing the episode "The Man from G.R.A.M.P.A.," writes that Fry plays the role of a British spy.
The star of 'The Man from G.R.A.M.P.A.' is guest voice actor Stephen Fry. Playing the M15 [sic] superspy, Terrance, who is tasked with hunting down Russia’s most infiltrated spy in America, The Grey Fox. The English actor plays the part perfectly, both as a damaged member of the M15 and as a man able to connect with Homer and the boys at Moe’s.
Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley) returns to his role as Thomas McGregor in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, the sequel to 2018's Peter Rabbit. Though the film will be released in the United States on June 18, it has been released in other countries, including the UK. If you're interested in watching the film, both the Guardian and Film Stories have reviewed it. You can also watch a trailer for the film right here.
Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) will star in a new CBS medical drama series, Good Sam, reports TV Guide. The series, recently picked up by the network, also stars Sophia Bush, and the two will play father and daughter.
The show follows Sam (Bush), a surgeon whose talents have gone underutilized thanks to her arrogant and overbearing boss, Dr. Paul "Griff" Griffith (Isaacs), who also happens to be her father. After he falls into a coma, Sam assumes leadership and begins to shine in her position, but she is thrown for another loop when he regains consciousness. The two are then forced to co-exist in a new world where their roles are reversed, with Griff now working as Sam's subordinate. The dramedy also stars Edwin Hodge, Skye P. Marshall, Michael Stahl-David, Davi Santos, Omar Maskati, and Wendy Crewson.
The second season of Channel 5's All Creatures Great and Small – airing on PBS in the US – has been filming in the Yorkshire Dales, according to the Yorkshire Post. Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) reportedly will be returning for the second season.
In addition to her cameo role in the British adaptation of Call My Agent!, Kelly Macdonald (Helena Ravenclaw) can be seen in the sixth season of the television series Line of Duty. While the series is now available to stream via multiple platforms, an article from TV Insider in the Messenger-Inquirer adds that BritBox is releasing the sixth season in weekly installments as of May 18.
The seven new episodes are set 18 months after the anti-corruption detectives of AC-12 uncovered yet another senior police official engaged in criminal activity at the end of Season 5. Despite that success, one core member of the team, Detective Inspector Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure), has left, and morale is low at the unit, which hasn’t recovered from allegations of misconduct against department head Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar).
As a guest star in the season, Macdonald plays Detective Chief Inspector Joanne Davidson, "[whose] motives, however, don’t seem as clear-cut as those of some of AC-12’s previous adversaries." Line of Duty currently airs on BBC One, and an interview with creator Jed Mercurio is available from News Talk Florida.
Adrian Rawlins, who portrayed the adult James Potter in the Harry Potter films, appears in the anthology Undergods, directed by Spanish filmmaker Chino Moya. Released on May 7, Undergods has been reviewed by the Guardian, in which the reviewer describes the episodes within the film.
In the third and most striking episode, the lives of middle-rung company drone Dominic (Adrian Rawlins) and his malcontent wife, Rachel (Kate Dickie), are turned on their heads when Rachel’s former partner Sam (Sam Louwyck) reappears after 15 years – with catastrophic consequences.
Fiona Shaw (Petunia Dursley) has wrapped filming for Andor, a new television series set within the Star Wars universe. The Dorset Echo reports that the 12-episode series will be set before the events of 2016's Rogue One. While filming occurred at Winspit Quarry, none of the series's main cast members – including Shaw – were seen on the set.
Unfortunately, Timothy Spall (Peter Pettigrew) has pulled out of the PBS and BritBox series Magpie Murders, according to reports from Deadline and TV Insider. Spall reportedly had a scheduling conflict and will be replaced by actor Tim McMullan, who has had recent roles in The Crown and The Serpent, among others.
Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge) returns for the second season of the Apple TV+ series Trying, and BroadwayWorld has published a sneak peek of the season ahead of its May 21 release.
In season two, 'Trying' follows the continuing journey of Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall) as they navigate the adoption process. Having been approved by the adoption panel they now find that matching with a child is not as straightforward as they had hoped. It seems like children are being snapped up by other couples while somehow they're being left behind. Helped by their eccentric social worker Penny (Imelda Staunton) they are determined to do everything they can. When Nikki meets a little girl called Princess at an adoption event she knows instantly that this is the child for them. But there are obstacles to Nikki's plan that may prove insurmountable.
You can take a look at season two of Trying from BroadwayWorld or stream it via Apple TV+ now.
Natalia Tena (Nymphadora Tonks) can be seen in the thriller film Baby, included in the 2021 Milwaukee Film Festival lineup. Writing for Radio Milwaukee, Justin Barney praised the film and director Juanma Bajo Ulloa.
BABY is a dark fairytale about an addict mother who, in desperation, sells her newborn to traffickers. She quickly regrets the decision and ventures into an eerie forest to get him back. Inspired by Guillermo del Toro and the Brothers Grimm, Basque filmmaker Juanma Bajo Ulloa constructs a world that is equal parts grotesque and beautiful. This macabre tale is told entirely without dialogue and stars Rosie Day (OUTLANDER), Harriet Sansom Harris (DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES), and Natalia Tena (GAME OF THRONES, HARRY POTTER.)
The release date for Eden, Netflix's first original Japanese anime series, has been announced, and the English voice cast includes none other than David Tennant (Barty Crouch, Jr.). Radio Times reports that the series will premiere on May 27 and that Tennant will play E92, one of two "robotic guardians."
Eden is set in the distant future where robots are the only form of existence and humans have been gone for thousands of years – except for the chirpy and excitable Sara, who was secretly raised by robots A37 and E92 after they found her as a cryogenically frozen baby in the city of Eden 3.
Rosario Dawson will voice A37, while Ruby Rose Turner will voice Sara.
You can check out a trailer for Eden from Netflix's YouTube channel.
David Thewlis (Remus Lupin) can be seen in the film Rare Beasts, the directorial debut of actress Billie Piper. In the UK, the 2019 film has now had a cinematic release and is available on streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime Video. List Film reviewed the film, in which Thewlis plays Vic, the father of Piper's character, Mandy.
No release date information for the United States or other countries is available at this time.
If you're looking to see a stage production, however, Thewlis will star alongside Daniel Mays in a production of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter from the Old Vic. According to Culture Whisper, Thewlis will play the role of Ben, while Mays will play the role of Gus.
The story follows Ben and Gus, two hitmen awaiting details of their next assignment in the basement of a former café. Things take a spooky-cum-farcical turn when the physical dumb waiter starts bombarding the pair with mysterious food orders, but it's the final twist that renders the play a masterpiece.
The production will be performed to a distanced audience in the theater and streamed to an at-home audience July 7 through July 10, and more information on ticketing is available from the website of the Old Vic.
William Nadylam (Yusuf Kama) can be seen in the upcoming drama film Good Funk, and ComingSoon.net exclusively published key art and a trailer for it. Even more interesting, perhaps, is how the film came to be.
The film is the product of an unprecedented film training and visual literacy program that recruited young Brooklynites to learn filmmaking craft, share their stories, and collaborate for pay on a feature film production. The result is a portrait of love enduring and a testament to discovering family in unexpected places.
No details were provided on Nadylam's role; however, a plot description was included in the article from ComingSoon.net.
Set in Red Hook, a Brooklyn neighborhood on the verge of gentrification, 'Good Funk' tells the story of three generations of citizens, Afro-Caribbean immigrants, whose lives intersect through acts of kindness both big and small. The polyrhythmic narrative is as much a living, breathing document of a community as it is a touching collection of moments in the lives of its inhabitants—cinematic instances that may initially seem elusive in intent but coalesce into a poignant, meaningful cadence.
Good Funk will be available to purchase or rent digitally on iTunes and Amazon Prime Video from June 8.
Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander) is currently filming his upcoming Netflix thriller, The Good Nurse, in Connecticut, and Patch.com reports that filming has now moved to Norwalk. "The production will continue shooting in Norwalk through June 4, and filming will take place in other areas of the city, including the Mechanic Street Lot near Wall Street and Richard C. Briggs High School on Main Avenue," according to Sabrina Church, director of business development and tourism for the City of Norwalk.
An article from Deadline describes the film's plot:
'The Good Nurse' will tell the true story of the pursuit and capture of Charlie Cullen, a nurse who is regarded as one of the most prolific serial killers in history. Now called 'Angel of Death,' Cullen was a married father who was thought to be a responsible caretaker, but his secret compulsion to take life led to his implication in the deaths of as many as 300 patients over 16 years, spread across nine hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Set in a post-pandemic 2024 in the run up to a British general election, 'The Undeclared War' tracks a leading team of analysts buried in the heart of GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters; the UK’s version of the NSA) secretly working to ward off a cyber-attack on the country’s electoral system.
The series is a co-production between Channel 4 and NBCUniversal's Peacock.
Noma Dumezweni (Hermione Granger) has curated a solo performance for the Old Vic titled Home?.
HOME? curated by actor and refugee-child Noma Dumezweni, brings together global voices, stories and experiences to mark Refugee Week 2021 (14–20 Jun) across three new commissions, created in collaboration with refugee artists.
The series of world premiere monologues will celebrate and recognise those who have sought safety from their homes, their place within our collective community and the journey that it took to get there.
It will be available to watch via YouTube for free.
James Snyder (Harry Potter) is among a number of celebrities lending their support to the Children's Tumor Foundation to raise awareness about neurofibromatosis (NF), according to an article published by Yahoo! Finance. On May 17, the Children's Tumor Foundation marked World NF Awareness Day with a special live event called Make NF Visible, and Snyder and actor Jonathan Sadowski hosted it. The event is available to view on YouTube now.
The Yahoo! Finance article explains what neurofibromatosis is and why the work of organizations such as the Children's Tumor Foundation is so important:
NF, short for neurofibromatosis, is a rare genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body and affects all ethnicities, races, and genders equally. In addition to tumors growing anywhere in the body, NF may lead to blindness, deafness, bone abnormalities, disfigurement, learning disabilities, disabling pain, and cancer. NF affects 1 in 3,000 people and, while the FDA recently approved the first-ever treatment, Koselugo (selumetinib), for inoperable plexiform neurofibromas, there is no cure at this time for NF, which is why it is crucial to Make NF Visible.
Cursed Child playwright Jack Thorne, who wrote Netflix's Enola Holmes, has also written Enola Holmes 2, though Inspired Traveler reports that few details are known at this time. Both Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill will be returning for the sequel; however, other cast members from the original film – including Harry Potter's Helena Bonham Carter – have not been confirmed at this time.
That’s all for this edition of Casting News, but stay tuned for more updates next week! Until then, we would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!
