Harry Potter HBO Series: Black Snape and the Stolen Props
“The abuse fuels me”, says Paapa Essiedu, also known as Black Snape in the new “Harry Potter” HBO series.
Seems to be an obvious and valid source of inspiration for one of the leading actors of the story…
“The abuse fuels me”, says Paapa Essiedu, also known as Black Snape of the new “Harry Potter” HBO series. Seems to be an obvious and valid source of inspiration for one of the leading actors of the story, which until now has been uniting families, bringing together generations, and keeping our faith in our best and magical selves alive, against all odds.
Until the final cast was announced, the fans had heard rumours but nobody really believed it was going to happen. But as the official trailer came out, we saw with our own eyes that they took “a wizard who creeps in the darkness and kills everyone’s favourite wizard, and turned him black” (Side Scrollers).
For more than two decades, Severus Snape, played by Alan Rickman, didn’t need either a political agenda or a studio-manufactured victim card. He became a legend without raising his voice once. He carried the story of the Potions Master through years of the on-screen mystery; he charmed us silently, with grace and dignity, leading the story to one ultimate word of loyalty, love and self-sacrifice, and that’s how he will remain in our memory, always.
Harry Potter HBO series trailer: ratioed “for real cuz”
However, HBO has decided that the story that bonds us, the story we share and love, should be taken from us, and anyone who objects should be immediately labeled as racist. But let’s take it step by step. I will be asking questions openly, I will be backing my opinions with my findings, as my goal here is to do my job as a scientist, which is to put my expertise to use and inform the community of the possible consequences of their actions.
The moment the Harry Potter HBO series trailer met the prospective audience wasn’t a moment of celebration. It didn’t ignite anticipation or excitement. Here is what it did ignite:
“Harry, are you suggesting Professor Snape is stealing?” 11K likes
“I think Snape is trying to steal the philosopher’s stone” —“Typical” 11K likes
“You got yo mama’s eyes for real cuz” 14K likes
“This is so book accurate!” Snape pops up* 40K likes
You got yo mama’s eyes for real cuz
The Harry Potter fans are calling him Snape Dogg, Severus Snoop, and Professor Snoop, whose first single “I am Black Snape” became more popular than the original trailer (happens all the time…).
They are openly referring to the source when calling the studio out on the question of adding racism to the fairy tale that has shaped childhood for many of them:
“Harry couldn’t explain it, but there was just something he didn’t like about Snape”
“Snape has Dreads… I’m dead”
“Profesor Snape now truly does the black magic…”
And if this is not enough for you, let’s move further into the comment section. It’s getting darker …
“Your parents were the kindest, bravest people I ever met.”
Harry finds out his dad had black snape hanging from under a tree 19K likes
“Having Snape kneeling and calling Voldemort “Master” will definitely hit different now”.
“5th book Lily: Why you bullying Severus? James: Because how he looks”.
And even:
“How dare you stand where he stood?!!” 9.1K likes
In less than 3 weeks, the Harry Potter series teaser got ratioed.
“This miscast of Snape” in context
This gets us to what Paapa Essiedu said in one of his interviews: “the idea that a kid like me can see themselves represented in that world”.
In what world? The world of lynched chronicles and other “picnics”? That’s what you are failing to understand or deliberately ignore:
Addressing the issue of adaptation, we must start by taking into consideration what is called “timeline” and where on that timeline we are at this exact moment. Because this gives us something very important for the interpretation of the literary work and, consequently, for adaptation—context.
The context of Black Snape is history, and that is the history of slavery, lynch trials, and continuous oppression. And now Paapa Essiedu wants every child to feel “the picnic” for themselves.
Paapa Essiedu: “I will make this character my own”
There is no evidence to support the statement that anyone wanted or persistently asked for Paapa Essiedu’s version of Severus Snape. Period. There are, however, voiced opinions that “what he should be doing, although he doesn’t look anything like Snape, is trying to make the character as close as possible to the book” (Nerdrotic).
Some fans say that Paapa Essiedu seems to have a crusade of a kind. As if he is at war with all the fans and people who are just … well, would love him to leave the show because they don’t want to endure this. They don’t want the fiery tale they know and love to be associated with someone’s manifesto, or whatever on Earth that is.
The man of the hour, meanwhile, says: “the abuse fuels me”. To do exactly what? There are at least nine thousand and one hundred people who are willing to know “how dare you stand where he stood?”. And that is absolutely justified. As if we take a step back from the story, we will see a black man who is desperate to put himself in the place of a white man. Yes, right after killing him and letting the Death Eaters, whose traditional clothes include black pointed hoods are hard to mistake, into Hogwarts. Welcome to the Black Parade! Gerard Way has probably never seen it this way … That’s what the context does.
“Their decision to cast black Snape was inherently racist, because you literally did it to make it less white”, — hosts of the Nerdrotic YouTube channel put in words what many potential viewers are thinking about.
“He wants to see himself as an important piece, not Severus Snape”, says Derek Anderson.
Derek also addresses Paapa Essiedu with a very reasonable question:
"Why are you playing the role of a white guy?”
Black Snape’s narrative is taking shape
“What the Hell is that?” — that’s what a genuine Harry Potter fan reaction is when they see Black Snape.
When the reacting phase ended, fans turned to rational evaluation, and here is what they say:
“And on top, this whole thing is manufactured. This whole thing is manufactured. The whole the whole I’ve received death threats thing. It’s so that he can do this. And the reason why they don’t amplify an already black character is because it’s not about amplifying a black character. It’s about taking a white character away from white people,” — the final conclusion, voiced at the Nerdrotic panel discussion.
“This is no longer about casting,” says George, a host of a YouTube channel where he reviews movies and streaming series. “It’s about inheritance. What happens when two generations love the same thing? Same books, same movies, same heroes, but they can’t even speak the same cultural language anymore”. George voices what other fans and admirers feel: soon we will not be able to share the same stories anymore, and stories are how cultures remember who they are. People bond through shared stories, shared memory, shared experience. The stories we share create the world around us, they teach us values, they shape our lives, and our future. And there is no bigger story in a contemporary world than Harry Potter, written by Joanne Rowling, if you gain control over it, you can control all these things.
This looks like a soft power weapon in a war that hasn’t been and will not be officially announced. What is worse is that pattern that was mentioned by many, including the representatives of the “underrepresented”: “Finally, the main reason why Snape should not be black is I love Africans, Afro-Americans, black people. Many of us no longer want scraps left behind the white characters <…> because there is an endless amount of African descent characters still waiting for their stories to be told,” says The First Okiroin in the video he called “Snape Should Not be Black“.
That’s exactly the impression this strategy gives. It makes people think that authors of African descent have no stories to tell. Oh, they do. Starting recent decades: Bernardine Evaristo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Malorie Blackman, Octavia E. Butler, Toni Morrison—and the list does go on—they all have stories to tell. But maybe, just maybe, those are not the stories HBO wants you to learn about. Dr Dina McMillan comments on this as follows:
It's about taking a white character away from white people!
You decide
Decide for yourself what kind of conflict HBO is trying to get you into. Just remember that at this point, we are not talking about fascination or excitement, we are not talking about fans waiting for the magic to return to their screens. We are talking about a project corrupting something we love and capitalizing on it, using the generations-bonding story to chase some really vague interest, with someone who is fueled by the abuse and surrounded by jokes about the stolen props.
As a closing comment, I would like to share a piece of a dialogue I heard recently:
— Who’s your favourite character?
— Snape… Severus Snape! The original one! The Severus Snape. The one in the movies.
— And this, HBO, is what happens when you buy your Snape on Temu.
Whatever your decision is, some Harry Potter fans promise that “THIS CHRISTMAS, I’ll be in my bedroom, making no noise and pretending that I don’t exist”. But should we?
We already have Severus Snape. The original one. The one in the movies. The one we will remember and love.
Ianina, 2026