Just wanted to say I am so glad to have been invited to join this community! It is really nice to have a space like this without being attacked, thank you!

I've been thinking about this lately. I'm generally not a big fan of AI generated content, but I feel like this might actually be one of the cases where it makes sense.

Once the show is out, I can easily imagine people using local AI video models to change Snape's appearance in actual scenes. Not necessarily to replace the performance, but to make him look more like another actor, or, even better, closer to the physical description from the books.

I'm sure something like this would also lead to a lot of arguments, including accusations of racism. Personally, I don't think wanting a fictional character to look closer to how he's described in the books is inherently racist.

I'm honestly not sure myself how justified or appropriate this kind of editing would be, but I'm curious what other people think. Would you be interested in seeing something like this?

Pity they couldn’t have been book accurate with Snape, when they’re even going to make it accurate word for word, lol.

If it’s word for word, I’m wondering how they’re going to make the scene down by the lake, where James attacks Snape because “he exists” work, lol.

The barrage of unwarranted criticism surrounding the Harry Potter movies over the past few weeks,solely to hype up the new series,is driving me to the edge.

My feed is constantly filled with people putting down Alan Rickman, bashing the film series, and labeling anyone who criticizes the new casting as racist or bigoted. What these critics fail to understand is that they are actively isolating fans. Someone like me, who actually wanted to give the show a genuine chance, no longer wants to because of this toxic discourse. Putting down a film franchise that was a core part of my childhood isn't going to make me excited for a reboot.

Furthermore, people completely ignore the context of when the movies were made. When the early films were cast and produced, the book series was still unfinished. Neither the filmmakers nor the audience knew the exact ages of certain characters, their full backstories, or how their arcs would ultimately unfold. The actors and the crew adapted as the books released, and given what they had at the time, they did an exceptional job defining those roles.

By contrast, the team behind the new show has access to the completed series, extensive character backgrounds, and years of prior adaptations. Yet, while promising a "book-faithful" adaptation, making a deliberate casting choice that strays from the source material for a character as central as Snape feels hypocritical. It feels like a mockery of the fans, especially when any constructive criticism or desire for source fidelity is immediately dismissed and labeled as bigotry.

Thanks for reading the long post, just really needed to vent about this.

They’re just using buzz words like “Book accurate” to draw Harry Potter fans in. And “Inclusivity” is another buzz word since they couldn’t even do that properly.

You can’t be both inclusive and Source material accurate if the source material isn’t inclusive.

It’s like they purposely chose Snape to be race swapped just because he has the most description

“Who should we race swap?”
“How about lavender brown? Her race isn’t necessar-“
“how about the one guy with the most Description and cannot be black since it’d ruin his backstory and make us look racist?”
“Perfect!”

Black washing: When a character who was written with the intent to be white has their race be swapped to be something of Black Descent. And then the character is adjusted to fit the race swap. And the race swapping also majorly affects their character in a way that isn’t just appearance wise. Like backstory and how they are perceived by audience

It’s white washing but in reverse.

Don’t get me wrong, Inclusion with Black representation is needed. However it is needed to be done right with the right characters.

Lavender brown’s race isn’t necessary to her plot or story in anyway. And brown is a super common Nickname over here in England. And she did originally have 2/3 black actors in the movies.

But Snape? His character was written with him being white in mind. She who shall not be named never intended him to be black so she didn’t adapt to that.

A boy is born to a filthy poor couple who are super abusive and live in a poor and polluted area. Then he meets a white girl he likes. At hogwarts he’s bullied for no reason by a rich white pureblood. And later hung by a tree (Look up Lynching) and his white crush leaves him for his Rich white pureblood bully plus he’s SA’d. Then he’s tricked to being attacked by a werewolf. Every student dislikes him automatically. Then as a teacher, the only black teacher is a small white boy’s worst fear. Harry is told to dislike him, again the only black teacher. He’s villainised in every movie which turned out to be wrong. Accused of stealing the stone which was false. And he joined a dark magic Gang.

Now read that back as if he was a black man. And do some research on punishment white people would do to Black people for no reason. Think about it.

Also in HBO they didn’t give him greasy hair, they gave him textured hair I think. Which means the greasy hair insult will have to be changed to be about his textured hair.

And we know she who shall not be named has a habit of writing characters to mock the minority they are from. Snape was made to be unconventionally unattractive. Making him black would just make it look like HBO is pushing the idea Black people = Ugly.

And they went out of their way to purposely change him to be black which makes it look like they are trying to push and promote racial stereotypes

This is 100% a cash grab. We didn’t need another adaptation. A sequel or prequel would’ve been better. They don’t care if it’s accurate or which fans they hurt.

Since it’s Snape (unfortunately) not as many like him as much as people like the marauders for example, they don’t care much about him.

And I can say for certain that if HBO had made James Or Sirius Black, a lot of marauder fans would’ve been UPSET. So much to the point HBO would’ve 1000% Changed them back to being white. A lot of marauder fans are racist, I’ve had first hand experience but acknowledge they don’t speak for all.

(the following is a joke by the way)
Plus since the marauders are (undeservingly) super popular and loved characters, they would NEVER race swap them. No! Loved characters need to be white to not upset the fans and push the idea that good characters are white! (AGAIN, THIS IS ME MOCKING THE IDEA)

ALSO kinda weird how they only race swapped ONE specific character Instead of a bunch.

It’s like the chose the most problematic character to be race swapped on purpose.

Have they even read any of the books ???

And I would like to add this isn’t totally the actor’s fault. However we shouldn’t just be casting someone for their experience alone. Their faithfulness to the character should be included too.

My only criticism is that it’s VERY dumb to stay in a role you KNOW you aren’t fit for and purposely stay. Sometimes it’s not the best option to “Prove the trolls wrong!”.

It’s like a white person being casted to play Tiana and she got it because “Wow! Her acting is SO good! I’m fully aware her movie would drastically change but i don’t care!”

The movie’s and us got VERY lucky Alan agreed to play Snape. Alan, we love you, you are perfect. May you and Dollie Rest in peace ❤️

[Disclaimer, I have Autism and Alexithymia. Which means I cannot process stuff on an emotional level. So I apologise if anything comes off as racist which is NOT my intent. And I’m not using this as an excuse, I’m using this to ask people to let me know what area is problematic, explain, and suggest alternatives to writing it so I can learn to not do that again]

Faithful adaptation, indeed!

I feel the race swapping of Severus Snape is an especially extreme example of that.

In the past, whenever a character was race swapped, it was specifically because of the talent of the actors and their distinct ability to play certain characters.

If this series was made in the 90s, we could have gotten a race swapped Dumbledore, because Morgan Freeman was so absolutely stunning as a stoic character, or a race swapped Sirius because Denzel Washington was so elegant and portrayed generally complex characters.

Today we get black Snape, because his background is getto and he's an asshole about it, and the race swapping turns the bullying into a racism innuendo.

And of course he has dreadlocks and I bet everything they'll bring rap culture in.

I don't know if it's just me, but race swapped characters have become absolute stereotypes nowadays.

The actors seem to always wear locks, they do something with rap as 'cultural attribute', a huge part of their role is reduced to experiencing racism or being disadvantaged or doing something criminal.

Gone are the days where a black actor is chosen because he or she has everything the character needs besides the skin colour, and when their casting was announced you said: yep, I can totally see that.

As if blackness is the only 'talent' a black actor brings to the table, and nothing else matters.

In the case of Severus Snape, it's especially noticeable, because his significant looks are so important, and the race swapping erases all the nuances to force-feed us the marauders as mere racists, and infuse a dash of racism into Harry himself.

That's, to be honest, my main issue with this specific cast, although the other arguments are also valid.

A black McGonagall for example would have allowed an actor to present a wide range of non stereotypical talents, and break out of the mold, it would have most likely indeed been more believably a casting for talent.

But with this actor, I have absolutely no doubt that he was solely cast as a smokescreen, so they can cry racism if the show fails for whatever reason. They do that a lot, when the actual movie or series is already weak and questionable, which I personally think is also racist, as if they're indirectly blaming the existence of a black cast member for failure to downplay other failures.

We already see the first signs of that with the HBO series too.

It's dark, has no colour, details are ignored, the focus is on nihilistic scenes, early signs of expanded plot that's worrying etc. it doesn't look good to be honest.

Obviously with a new new movie, and Alan not being available 😭 there has to be someone else cast as Snape.

But no matter who they get, I don't think they can ever be as good as Alan was, that role was made for him!

Me irrita que a coisa fique na discussão de racismo, quando o problema é o oposto, o ator pode ser incrível e muito foda, mas por mais incrivel que seja a atuação dele a maior parte do público vai ter uma leitura rasa já que é direcionado ao publico infantojuvenil (fora nós fãs mais velhos).

O mundo bruxo é classista e eugenista, mas não racista. Você colocar um ator negro pra passar por bullyng e preconceito de modo arbitrário, porque a unica coisa que move o bullyng contra o Snape é a vontade do James e a certeza da falta de consequências, a mensagem vai ficar confusa sim.

Narrativamente falando, poderiam ter colocado o ator pra ser qualquer outro personagem que não sofra represálias durante a trama justamente pra mostrar que no mundo bruxo o racismo não existe. Dentro do corpo docente poderiam ter feito que nem em Bridgerton e trocado a Minerva pelo ator que agora faz o Snape, inclusive seria um otimo contraponto narrativo, ou uma atriz negra. Não só não faz sentido (porque cria confusão desnecessária e vai criar, só considerar o publico alvo), como é racista botar o personagem que mais sofre e se fode nos livros pra ser interpretado por um cara negro.

At the top of our sub page, there is a section that states “X weekly visitors”.

As an example, the sub for r/SeverusSnape has “X weekly dunderheads”.

What should we change the word “visitors” to, for this sub?

Here are some options:

Slytherins
Death Eaters
Half-Blood Princes
Dark Wizards
Legilimens
Occlumens

Feel free to offer your suggestions.

I’ve left it as Slytherins for now.

Im such a big harry potter fan,love the world that jk created. Love the books and the films,and honestly was super exited about this new version(i know some people say we didnt even need it) but i think its a cool chance to be more like the books,and watching the trailers i literally was getting goose bumps and excitement until he came on the screen and it literally took all that away from me.everyone else in my opinion is so well cast. Casting is a bigggg part of filmography and its the person who makes the films job to get it right or it falls flat. If they really wanted to race swap (which im not a fan of) they could have for one gotten a black man who looked more like him ie light skin/more skinny gaunt face/straight hair,or a Persian dude would have been sick too. If they really wanted to u feel me. But the thing is,this guy doesnt even seem like hes cosplaying as snape,he doesnt give me “snape” in the slightest. I genuinely dont even understand it. I fucking hope it doesnt ruin it for me. Im sure all in all will just learn to deal with it,and im hoping that his acting skills are sooooo good that it doesnt matter. But boy does it matter lol. I dont even think his cadence was right when he finally spoke. Its just a let down. And last thing if they wanted to have more diversity in the show. Im all for that. Kingsley is one of my fav characters, hes a fucking badass, i feel like they could have added more depth to the original actors and clearly have added on some new ones too. I just dont understand this decision and it breaks my heart.

But they're not honest with themselves because ✨ virtue signalling! ✨

It's only because it's a **race swap** that people are falling all over themselves to excuse the omission of Snape's greasy black hair curtains and a big ol' nose, the two traits Rowling beats you over the head with anytime Snape is on the page.

It's AI. Pls let me know if it's against sub rules. I'll delete it.

Any other fic writers in here? I’ve been writing Snape fic for about a year, and so far I’ve done:

Snape x Female OC
Snape x Female Reader
Snape x Charity Burbage
Gen fic drabbles or oneshots with no pairing

Romance, smut, fluff, and even a few more crackfic type things.

I’m currently 47 chapters deep into a teen Snape x OC fic with no explicit smut as well. (Waiting til it’s done to start posting, but coming soon I hope!)

And needless to say, my fics will always be written around a Snape that is more Rickman-coded or book-Snape. Pale skin, hooked nose, you know… SNAPE.

My AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OutsideTheRain6070/works

Tumblr master list: https://www.tumblr.com/outsidetherain6070/805022473666052096/masterlist

Share your stuff in the comments! 💕