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Lord Voldermort Casting Odds Latest: Here are the 9 actors in the frame to play the Dark Lord in the Harry Potter TV reboot
Lord Voldermort Casting Odds Latest: Here are the 9 actors in the frame to play the Dark Lord in the Harry Potter TV reboot

Scotsman

time3 days ago

  • Entertainment
  • Scotsman

Lord Voldermort Casting Odds Latest: Here are the 9 actors in the frame to play the Dark Lord in the Harry Potter TV reboot

Production has now started on the new Harry Potter television series - with 22 cast members now revealed. The series will debut in 2027 on HBO and HBO Max - including in the UK where the channel is set to launch. An open casting call for young actors from the UK and Ireland was held last year - resulting in the new Harry, Ron and Hermione being cast, along with other younger characters such as Lavender Brown and Neville Longbottom. They join a cast of established actors who will once again bring the wizarding world of Hogwarts alive. It will be written and executive produced by Francesca Gardiner, whose previous screen credits include His Dark Materials, The Rook and The Man in the High Castle. Meanwhile Edinburgh-based author J.K. Rowling is on board as an executive producer. While we know who will play the majority of the main characters, there's still no word on who will play the evil Lord Voldermort - portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in the films. Here are the 9 actors the bookies reckon are in the frame for the role. 1 . Cillian Murphy - 2/1 The 2/1 favourite to play the Dark Lord is Cillian Murphy, who last year won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in 'Oppenheimer'. He would certainly be a real coup for the casting team. | Getty Images Photo Sales 2 . Tom Hiddleston - 9/4 No stranger to huge franchaises - or with playing baddies - English actor Tom Hiddleston is best known for playing trickster god Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He's 9/4 second favourite to become one of the most evil characters in the history of literature. | Getty Images Photo Sales 3 . Paul Bettany - 3/1 Famous for playing J.A.R.V.I.S. and Vision in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Paul Bettany have narrowed in recent weeks and he's now a 3/1 shot to be cast as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in arguably the world's second biggest franchaise. | Getty Images for Emirates Photo Sales 4 . George MacKay - 4/1 'Sunshine on Leith' star George Mackay wasn't even in the running a month ago, but now he's 4/1 fourth favourite to take over from Ralph Fiennes. | Getty Images Photo Sales

Ralph Fiennes is utterly compelling in David Hare's smart new play
Ralph Fiennes is utterly compelling in David Hare's smart new play

Yahoo

time04-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Yahoo

Ralph Fiennes is utterly compelling in David Hare's smart new play

For all his routinely acclaimed screen performances (latterly Conclave, The Return and 28 Years Later), Ralph Fiennes is a consummate theatre animal. And he lays claim to that terrain with zeal in an ambitious three-pronged season in Bath that begins with him incarnating – in accomplished style – one of the giants of the Victorian stage – Henry Irving (1838-1905). Grace Pervades, a new play by David Hare (with whom he has collaborated much of late), centres on the professional and personal relationship that flowered between Irving and fellow luminary Ellen Terry during his legendary tenure (1878-1899) running the Lyceum in the West End as a multi-tasking actor-manager. With Miranda Raison (formerly of Spooks fame) bringing charm and, yes, grace to the role of actress Terry, there's ample to snare our attention. Do we need so much on shifting theatre trends? Arguably not, but that's no reason to miss out on a play of pervasive insight that successfully evokes a bygone era of tremendous thespian industry, innovation and celebrity. Irving – the first actor to be awarded a knighthood – had his detractors as well as his admirers, the latter group including the Telegraph's Clement Scott, who hailed his Hamlet as a 'noble contribution to dramatic art'. Interestingly, Hare puts some of the fiercest criticism of Irving's limitations – his mind more impressive than his body – in the actor's own mouth. Fiennes's stiff, stooped Irving, with dragging leg and scholarly sweep of hair, woos Terry to join his Lyceum venture on the basis that her joyful radiance will compensate for his natural tendency to dourness (Fiennes is now a past master at a tragicomic air of careworn melancholy). That his instincts about Terry are correct gets amply proven in Jeremy Herrin's fleet production (replete with scenic transformations): in swift succession, a decorously attired, refulgent Raison spellbinds as Portia, Lady Macbeth and Viola. Prone to self-doubt too, Terry frets that Irving's silence about her Ophelia is a sign of dislike; in fact, it's because he is in awe. The script – Hare's dialogue is characteristically crisp – catches the handed-on wonders of the art form, along with its innate requirement to change. But there's something muted about the pair's disputes over Terry's under-nourishing supporting roles and frustrated yearning to play Rosalind (one notes that Fiennes directs As You Like It next). Still, the full, fascinating complexity of their necessarily covert close personal bond is left for us to surmise. Nor do we get to see this leading classical actor donning the mantle of Irving the full-blooded Shakespearean. The focus darts often to Terry's estimable (illegitimate) offspring – Edward Gordon Craig and Edith Craig. Jordan Metcalfe is enjoyably bumptious as theatre's self-appointed, theorising saviour, while Ruby Ashbourne Serkis is likeably grounded as his equally pioneering sister. Other passing dramatis personae include Isadora Duncan and Konstantin Stanislavski. Hare is too good a writer for us to feel that he has bitten off more than we can chew. But he could afford to give the big draw – the veiled power-couple romance at the evening's heart – even more room to breathe, and blaze. Until July 19. Tickets: Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Grace Pervades, review: Ralph Fiennes is utterly compelling in David Hare's smart new play
Grace Pervades, review: Ralph Fiennes is utterly compelling in David Hare's smart new play

Telegraph

time04-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Telegraph

Grace Pervades, review: Ralph Fiennes is utterly compelling in David Hare's smart new play

For all his routinely acclaimed screen performances (latterly Conclave, Odysseus and 28 Years Later), Ralph Fiennes is a consummate theatre animal. And he lays claim to that terrain with zeal in an ambitious three-pronged season in Bath that begins with him incarnating – in accomplished style – one of the giants of the Victorian stage – Henry Irving (1838-1905). Grace Pervades, a new play by David Hare (with whom he has collaborated much of late), centres on the professional and personal relationship that flowered between Irving and fellow luminary Ellen Terry during his gilded tenure (1878-1899) running the Lyceum in London. With Miranda Raison (formerly of Spooks fame) bringing charm and, yes, grace to the role of actress Terry, there's ample to snare our attention. Do we need so much on shifting theatre trends? No, but that's no reason to miss out on a play of pervasive insight that evokes a bygone era of tremendous thespian industry, innovation and celebrity. Irving – the first actor to be awarded a knighthood – had his detractors as well as his admirers, the latter group including the Telegraph's Clement Scott, who hailed his Hamlet as a 'noble contribution to dramatic art'. Interestingly, Hare puts some of the fiercest criticism of Irving's limitations – his mind more impressive than his body – in the actor's own mouth. Fiennes's stiff, stooped Irving, with dragging leg and scholarly sweep of hair, woos Terry to join his Lyceum venture on the basis that her joyful radiance will compensate for his natural tendency to dourness (Fiennes is now a past master at a tragicomic air of careworn melancholy). That his instincts about Terry are correct gets amply proven in Jeremy Herrin's fleet production (replete with scenic transformations): in swift succession, a decorously attired, refulgent Raison spellbinds as Portia, Lady Macbeth and Viola. Prone to some self-doubt too, Terry frets that Irving's silence about her Ophelia is a sign of dislike; in fact, it's because he is awed by her perfection, unwavering even though her rendition alters every night. The script – Hare's dialogue characteristically crisp – catches the handed-on wonders of the artform, along with its innate requirement to change. But there's something muted about the pair's contretemps over Terry's under-nourishing supporting roles and frustrated yearning to play Rosalind (one notes that Fiennes directs As You Like It next). Nor do we get to see this leading classical actor donning the mantle of Irving the full-blooded Shakespearean. The focus darts away often – too often – to Terry's estimable (illegitimate) offspring – Edward Gordon Craig and Edith Craig. Jordan Metcalfe is enjoyably bumptious as theatre's self-appointed, theorising saviour, while Ruby Ashbourne Serkis is more likeably grounded as his equally artistic sister, her bohemian ménage a trois sketched in too, with Isadora Duncan and Stanislavsky factored in on top. Hare is too good a writer for us to feel he has bitten off more than we can chew. But he could afford to give the power-couple romance at the evening's heart even more room to breathe, and blaze.

Grace Pervades review – Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison exceptional as Victorian stage stars
Grace Pervades review – Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison exceptional as Victorian stage stars

The Guardian

time04-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • The Guardian

Grace Pervades review – Ralph Fiennes and Miranda Raison exceptional as Victorian stage stars

When fielding letters from theatregoers bewildered by the titles of David Hare's 1990 plays Racing Demon and Skylight, the director Richard Eyre told the playwright that in future he should explain them. Grace Pervades usefully provides an epigraph: 'Grace pervades the hussy.' Even so, Hare still requires us to know, or Google, that this line comes from a review of the great actor Ellen Terry, who is portrayed here by Miranda Raison with Ralph Fiennes as her mentor, the senior British theatrical, Henry Irving. 'Hussy', which would these days rightly get a reviewer removed from the Critics' Circle, referred to her two children 'out of wedlock' and her long affair with the married Irving. Hare feared his temperament too sensitive for the very-public and judged medium of theatre. Grace Pervades, his 32nd full-length play, at the age of 78, is an amused and bemused meditation on why he – and his characters – put themselves through it to the extent that Irving died of an actual coronary very soon after acting one. In what also feels like an autobiographical grace note to Hare's many state of the nation plays, someone bemoans 'the stupid English sense of humour that stops them doing anything.' The 25 scenes spanning 1878-1966 allow Hare a wry anthology of theatrical attitudes. He can rarely have won a bigger laugh than when Terry delicately suggests Sir Henry might tweak his technique to look at other actors rather than the audience when speaking. Ellen's son, Edward Gordon Craig, the theatrical equivalent of architects who would rather sketch buildings than erect them, confides, after three years of Moscow rehearsals: 'Ideally, we would never open.' Irving's life is theatre; Terry prefers living. An in-joke has Sir Henry refusing to stage the 'ridiculous' As You Like It; Fiennes, in a season as an Irvingesque actor-manager, directs it on this Bath stage next month. Grace Pervades' director Jeremy Herrin and designer Bob Crowley smoothly move between multiple locations from Russia via the Cafe Royal to Wolverhampton. There is sometimes the bio-drama fault that everyone is historical: a ballet interlude introduces Isadora Duncan, who's sleeping with one character, while another laments she has just been 'frigged' and dumped by Vita Sackville-West. Such, though, were these circles. Much as aristocrats in modern period dramas are made to sound less posh than they were to avoid alienating the audience, the actors, in the performance extracts, play down the more histrionic acting style of those times. Although Terry, in a dressing room teasing scene, mimics what Victorians really heard – Irving's Shylock booming 'cut-throat dog' as 'cut-thrut dug' – Fiennes finds a vegan alternative to his honeyed ham. This sensibly avoids satirising the hero but also allows Fiennes, a poetic but naturalistic speaker of exceptional clarity, to treat us to flashes of Malvolio, Cardinal Wolsey and Hamlet. Raison's vignettes as Beatrice and Portia showcase both Terry's talent and her own. Irving disapproved of new plays – Fiennes speaks the name of George Bernard Shaw as if it were the period expletive, 'Pshaw!' – and so would never have staged Grace Pervades, but it is a work of considerable intelligence and elegance in which he and Terry could have given great pleasure, as does Hare. At Theatre Royal Bath until 19 July

Grace Pervades review — Ralph Fiennes is magnetic
Grace Pervades review — Ralph Fiennes is magnetic

Times

time04-07-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Times

Grace Pervades review — Ralph Fiennes is magnetic

A great contemporary actor plays a great late-Victorian actor manager. Does the notion of Grace Pervades, a new play by David Hare starring Ralph Fiennes as Henry Irving, sound like theatre eating itself? It is a bit, though Fiennes is too magnetic and Hare's script too stacked with bon mots and insights ever to be less than interesting. Irving ran the Lyceum Theatre in London from 1878 to 1902, plying a proudly old-fashioned programme of great plays featuring great roles for Henry Irving. And Grace Pervades starts Fiennes's own season of actor-managing, directing As You Like It in August here before starring with his ex Francesca Annis in a new play, Small Hotel, in October. The play's best moments revolve around Irving's relationship, largely professional, with his leading lady, Ellen Terry. In fact you can't help but wish all of its moments were about them and there was less time spent on her theatrical offspring, Edward Gordon Craig and Edith Craig. Partly that's because Fiennes, donning a series of ever-whitening wigs, is sincere, caustic, reserved, repressed, vain, generous — whatever the moment requires — and you wish for as much as you can get of him. Miranda Raison, as Ellen Terry, is engagingly elegant but the character feels like a foil to Irving MARC BRENNER Fiennes shows Irving the actor-micromanager, fastidiously controlling except when it comes to Terry. She can do whatever she likes. Miranda Raison lends Terry an engagingly elegant lightness but struggles, I think, to inhabit fully a character who feels like a foil to the more tunnel-visioned Irving, much though she pulls him up on his foibles. • David Hare interview: 'I have been heartily kicked by the BBC' Time that might have fleshed out this pair more is instead spent following the influential yet seemingly impossible Edward and the crusading Edith, who produces huge numbers of plays while living in a menage a trois in Kent. Every exchange has something going for it, but you wonder what all these character studies and theatrical theories are supposed to add up to. Still, a large cast rises to the challenges of a production, by Jeremy Herrin, played out on a huge area with visible wings and proscenium arch upstage (design by Bob Crowley). Jordan Metcalfe gives Edward a prim perfectionism that makes it easier to buy into this self-proclaimed genius as a great postulator than a great libertine. Bohemian Edith is played with name-making aplomb in her professional theatre debut by Ruby Ashbourne Serkis. (Suitably enough, in a play about theatrical dynasties, she is the child of two successful actors, Lorraine Ashbourne and Andy Serkis.) The cast rises to the challenge of the production MARC BRENNER Do we ever quite know what the story of these differently driven, devotedly theatrical types is supposed to make us feel? Not really. And it's one of those plays that changes time and place often enough that characters spend too much time reminding each other who they are and what they are about. But take it on its own slightly rambling terms and Grace Pervades has far too many ideas in its head ever to be dull.★★★☆☆ 150mins Bath Theatre Royal, to Jul 19, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews

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