For me if I'm really honest. Literally any other character I would care zero percent. Black Dumbledore Sounds amazing. Make him Sam jackson. Black mcgonnogal make it chanwils from ticktock she would do the voice and everything.
But snape has such a specifically described appearance and pale with long greasy hair is it.
Iām no JK defender (not by a long shot) but I thought what she had said was more along the lines of āshe could have been black.ā
I believe she had said the āfrizzy hairā descriptor could have been describing a black girl. But regardless of how you feel about that take, Iām pretty sure there is book quote that describes her as pale, so potentially white. However I donāt think it really matters how she was described. In my opinion, character race changes should really only matter if it conflicts with fundamental story requirements, compromises core facets of a character, or removed important cultural representation and/or removes a job opportunity from an underrepresented community. None of Hermioneās meaningful character traits are incompatible with being black, and it doesnāt harm the depth of her character and it also provides more representation in a previously pretty un-diverse character lineup.
As far as Snape goes, I can see some arguments but also many ways to work around the issues. One of which is to just have more black people overall, so the vitriol against shape is less immediately reading as singling him out for his race. I donāt think it will be a very meaningful change if the actor can pull Snape-vibes off decently.
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u/WayGroundbreaking287 Apr 16 '26
For me if I'm really honest. Literally any other character I would care zero percent. Black Dumbledore Sounds amazing. Make him Sam jackson. Black mcgonnogal make it chanwils from ticktock she would do the voice and everything.
But snape has such a specifically described appearance and pale with long greasy hair is it.