2027 will mark the 30th anniversary Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’s release, the book that launched what we now know as the Wizarding World franchise. That makes it all the more appropriate that in the same year, J.K. Rowling’s fantasy saga will also be adapted for the small screen. HBO’s Harry Potter TV show is still filming its first season, and 2025 was peppered with announcements about actors joining the series. Now there’s a new casting rumor for this upcoming book-to-screen adaptation making that rounds that really has my attention.
As we continue to linger in the early days of 2026, Deadline is hearing rumblings about Tilda Swinton being eyed to play Voldemort in the Harry Potter TV show. Voldemort, a.k.a. Tom Riddle, is, of course, the main antagonist of the original Harry Potter books and movies. Following Ian Hart voicing Voldemort in The Sorcerer’s Stone movie and Christian Coulson playing a teenaged Tom Riddle in The Chamber of Secrets, Ralph Fiennes portrayed The Dark Lord in The Goblet of Fire, The Order of the Phoenix and both parts of The Deathly Hallows. Hero Fiennes Tiffin and Frank Dillane also played younger versions of Tom in The Half-Blood Prince.
Gender-bending characters from existing source material has become common in film and TV adaptations in recent years, and Tilda Swinton, most recently seen starring in the Colin Farrell-led thriller Ballad of a Small Player, already has experience with this. She previously played a white female version of The Ancient One, who’s depicted as an Asian man in the comics, in Doctor Strange and Avengers: Endgame. So the prospect of Swinton playing Voldemort on this Harry Potter TV show isn’t unprecedented, and she also already has fantasy cred from playing the White Witch in the first two Chronicles of Narnia movies.
But like I’ve already said, this is just a rumor, so don’t get too excited. However, with the TV show expected to air early on in 2025, we’ll likely learn sometime this year who has been cast as Voldemort. If it does indeed end up being Tilda Swinton, I’ll definitely be interested to see how her take on the antagonist both differs from Ralph Fiennes’ version (besides being a woman), yet is still faithful to how he’s depicted on the printed page.
As far as actors we do know will be in the Harry Potter TV show, the core trio of Harry, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger will be respectively played by Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton. The rest of the main cast will consist of John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Papa Essiedu as Severus Snape and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid, and there are many recurring players who’ve been announced. That includes Warwick Davis reprising the role of Filius Flitwick from the movies.
Keep checking back with CinemaBlend for updates on how the Harry Potter TV show is coming along, including whether or not this Tilda Swinton rumor pans out. The idea of her being made up to have the same kind of snake face that Ralph Fiennes did in the movies sounds strangely fascinating. You can also stream the movies either either an HBO Max subscription or Peacock subscription.