HBO casts Hogwarts ghosts and the Sorting Hat for Harry Potter series
On Halloween Eve, HBO confirmed the ghosts of Hogwarts for its Harry Potter series: Leo Bill as Nearly Headless Nick, Andrew Brooke as the Bloody Baron, Daniel Fearn as the Fat Friar, Laura Smyth as the Fat Lady, and David Threlfall voicing the Sorting Hat. Season 1 debuts Dec. 25.
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The Halloween Eve casting
Variety reported HBO has cast David Threlfall to voice the Sorting Hat, Leo Bill as Nearly Headless Nick, Andrew Brooke as the Bloody Baron, Daniel Fearn as the Fat Friar, and Laura Smyth as the Fat Lady for its Harry Potter series. Polygon and Vulture carried the same ghost-and-hat casting. Yahoo News also reported on the series' casting approach.
Polygon noted Bill steps into a role John Cleese played in the films, and that Peter Serafinowicz was earlier cast as Peeves the Poltergeist, a book character cut from the movies. Variety said Season 1, adapting "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," debuts on HBO and HBO Max on Dec. 25, 2026.
Why it matters
For Halloween, the network filled out Hogwarts with its house ghosts and talking hat just two months before the Christmas premiere, giving the series its first full set of spectral regulars.