Poll: Paapa Essiedu as Snape
Love it or hate it, this is huge news. I thought it would be interesting to create a poll to see how everyone feels about it.
NOTE: Polls are 100% anonymous, though feel free to elaborate on your answer in the comments if you don't mind sharing.
My response, as I've always stated in other threads. 😹😹
I don't really care about changing appearance from the book, but I am somewhat concerned over the implications of the main character seeing a black person and going "yeah he is totally evil" for most of the series. And then there is the Marauder bullying, but that would be a rather small part of the series.
So I voted undecided.
^ This. I voted 'hate it', as you can't change his race without adding a bunch of extra connotations to other parts of the books/plot. It goes from 'we don't like him because he's weird/ugly/poor' to 'we don't like him because we're racist and he's not white'. If you want to make a fantasy series where human race is a major theme, then go for it. But Harry Potter already has magic vs non magic genetics as a major theme. Adding this on top will just confuse things.
That, and there are multiple references in the books to just how pale/sickly/sallow/sour milk/pallid/marble white Snape looks. And an illustration of his appearance on top of that. He's probably one of the only characters where there's zero wriggle room to explain him not being white.
I agree. Totally.
To be honest, I’m absolutely against it. Yes, partly because of his appearance—for me, there’s only one Severus Snape: Alan Rickman. He shaped the character so much for me that it’ll be incredibly hard to accept anyone else in that role.
Of course, I realize that a new series can’t just bring back the old actors and that a remake is allowed to have its own interpretations. But in my opinion, they could have cast someone who comes much closer to the established visual image of Severus Snape. For me, the difference is just too big. It feels a bit like suddenly replacing a character you’ve associated with a very specific appearance for years with a completely different interpretation—the name may stay the same, but the character no longer feels like the same one to me.
And then I also wonder how certain scenes from the past are supposed to be portrayed—for example, the scenes where the Marauders bully Snape. For me, these scenes in particular are part of his story and explain a lot about his later personality. How does the series intend to portray this credibly without suddenly raising entirely different social and historical questions?
Of course, Harry Potter is fiction, and within that world there are, for example, the conflicts between pure-bloods and Muggle-borns. But when racism is portrayed realistically, an additional layer comes into play—precisely because such topics are very sensitive today. I’m therefore really curious to see how the series will handle this.
I’ll definitely give Paapa Essiedu a fair chance. Maybe he’ll even surprise me. But if, after a few episodes, I still feel that this version of Severus Snape just doesn’t work for me at all, I probably won’t keep watching the series.
For me, at any rate, Alan Rickman will always be Severus Snape.
Severus Snape (Alan Rickman) Always
I voted that I hated it. But hate is a strong word. I don’t like it, because HBO advertised that they were going to do a faithful book adaptation. So one thinks that the characters are going to look close enough to how they did in the book. Of course not everyone is going to be happy. And yes Snape was described in the book several times. But there are online trolls who like to gaslight and say he never was.
I have no control when movies and books are redone over and over, but I do have control if I am going to watch them or not. When I heard about the new Harry Potter series on HBO, I wasn’t too excited but I was curious who they would pick as Snape. When it was announced Paapa Essiedu was picked I was like most of fanon. “What the heck. HBO said they were planning on being book accurate.” My thing is, why say you are going to be book accurate and then not be. I am now watching interviews where people working on the show are adding more back stories, basically their own interpretations. Which is fine, but just say so. Personally I think they should just take it to an Alternet Universe. We already know what is going to happen.
I personally never planned on watching this new Harry Potter series in real time. And this was before Paapa Essiedu. The way series are these days. I hate the way we sometimes have to wait a few years to get the next season and the teenagers are now played by someone who is married with children. How conversely happens and lead actors have to drop out. Then with a series lasting years you know some of those people will just leave because of health, death or they want to do other things. I tend to lose interest sometimes and just don’t care, and since I already know how Harry Potter ends and have filled in the back stories I am okay. Now if the series went with AU even with Paapa Essiedu, I would be interested because I wouldn’t know the ending.
I came back to this poll because I keep seeing thumbnails of Paapa Essidu and malfoid and seen parts of the videos and read some of the comments.
