A Weasley patriarch, a bathroom-dwelling ghost, and a camera-obsessed Hogwarts student have all been added to HBO’s “Harry Potter” series.
Rafe Spall (“Trying”) is one of three actors to join Season 2 of the upcoming adaptation, playing Ron Weasley’s father, Arthur, TVLine has learned. He takes over the role from Mark Williams, who played the Weasleys’ dad on the big screen. (Fun fact: Spall’s father, Timothy Spall, previously played Peter Pettigrew in the “Harry Potter” films.)
Additionally, relative newcomers Molly Hewitt-Richards and Jasper Ambrose will respectively play Moaning Myrtle (a nosy ghost who haunts the girls’ bathroom at Hogwarts) and Colin Creevey (a young Hogwarts student with a penchant for photography).
HBO’s “Harry Potter” series premieres this Christmas with an adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” novel. There’s currently no premiere timetable for Season 2, which will adapt “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.”
In other casting news…
- “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” cast member Mikayla Matthews will not return for Season 6 of the Hulu reality series, she announced on Instagram. Matthews has been a main cast member for all five seasons so far, but she alluded to controversies involving her co-star Taylor Frankie Paul in her exit statement: “There’s no amount of money worth going against my morals or changing the stance I’ve had since I first saw and heard the things that made me feel this strongly. And for me personally, continuing to directly profit from this behavior feels wrong and unethical.”
- Kristin Cavallari (“Laguna Beach”) has been cast opposite Tanner Novlan (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) in the Roku rom-com “Cowboy Hearts.” The scripted movie stars Cavallari as a reality TV producer who relocates to Georgia to reboot a classic cowboy-themed dating show. “She expects chaos behind the scenes, not romantic sparks with the cowboy himself,” per Roku’s official logline. “Now, with the cameras rolling and her job on the line, she’ll have to decide if love is worth going off script.”