Sir Mark Rylance is reportedly being lined up to play Albus Dumbledore in the 'Harry Potter' series. The 64-year-old actor is not believed to have entered officially negotiations with Warner Bros Television over the iconic role, but he's thought to be "top of the casting wishlist" for the upcoming adaptation of JK Rowling's iconic novels. As reported by Variety, the studio has "reached out" to Rylance to "gauge interest and availability".
A representative for HBO told the outlet: "We appreciate that such a high profile series will draw a lot of rumour and speculation. "As we make our way through pre-production, we will only confirm details as we finalise deals.” It's said Warner is looking to take influence from the feature films by casting some of the UK's best known actors in the adult roles, alongside newcomers as leads Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, who were played by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.
In the original movies, the likes of Richard Harris, Dame Maggie Smith and Alan Rickman were cast as Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape respectively. Harris - who was 70 when he was cast - died two years later, and was replaced by Michael Gambon for the remaining films. The original actor previously told The Guardian newspaper: "All I knew is that they kept offering me the part and raising the salary every time they called.
I kept turning it down. “Anyone involved has to agree to be in the sequels, all of them, and that’s not how I wanted t.