Keen-eyed muggles have spotted a problem with the cast of the upcoming Harry Potter TV show, but is there really an issue?

Over the last few weeks, HBO has been slowly announcing who will be playing who in the small-screen adaptation of the Boy Who Lived’s adventures. 

So far, we’ve learned that some of the biggest names in Hollywood are set to appear – including John Lithgow, Paapa Essiedu, Janet McTeer, and Nick Frost – while newcomers Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout will be playing Harry, Hermione, and Ron, respectively. 

On June 9, another owl (okay, it was a press release) arrived announcing several new actors who’ll be joining the show. Katherine Parkinson will be taking on the role of Molly Weasley, Johnny Flynn will be donning Lucius Malfoy’s blonde wig, while Lox Pratt will play his son Draco. 

Of all those announced, though, it was Bel Powley and Daniel Rigby – who are playing Harry’s aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley – who caught fans’ attention.

A number of people online thought that the pair were too young to play the Harry’s last living relatives.

@RageCrusader asked on X, ‘Aren’t they a bit young for the roles?’, @turquoisepogos concurred posting, ‘ Why so young choice?’ 

@relientkenny meanwhile wrote, ‘This is insane. They’re both only in their 30s’ and @DavidJosephLaw2 added, ‘I’m assuming they’ll have makeup on cos they look too young’. 

It was @RickPayne88, however, who was perhaps the most dramatic about the latest casting news, posting: ‘Whoever is the casting director needs to be fired wtf are these casts’.

This sentiment wasn’t exclusive to X either. On Reddit, UltraYZU admitted ‘They seem much younger and quite more attractive than I imagined when reading.’ 

In fact, a number of people seemed confused as to why producers had cast such young actors as the Dursleys.

Here’s the thing, though: Bel and Daniel are exactly the right ages to play Petunia and Vernon. You see, while the movies portrayed the Dursleys as a middle-aged couple, they’re a lot younger in the books. 

How do we know that? Well, you don’t need to be as good as a goblin at arithmetic to work that out, but let me spell (pun unintended) it out for you.

While Petunia’s age in the books is never stated, we know that she’s close in age to her sister Lily, who was just 21 when Voldemort murdered her.

That would mean that when the story began, ten years after the Potter’s murder, Petunia could only have been in her early thirties at most. 

Bel, at 33 years old, is the perfect age to play Harry’s aunt. Similarly, we’re never explicitly told how old Vernon is in the books, fans estimate he’s only a few years older than his wife, with most estimating he’s about 37 in The Philosopher’s Stone. 

At 42 years old, Daniel is actually older than Vernon was when we met him in the first book.

Of course, it’s easy to understand why some fans are confused about the Dursley’s ages. In the Harry Potter movies, the decision was made to age up the adult cast.

This was done primarily because the 55-year-old Alan Rickman had been cast as Snape, who’s supposed to be in his thirties, and therefore, the actors playing his classmates had to be a similar age to keep things looking consistent. 

The Harry Potter TV show is set for release in 2026

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