While HBO are, as usual, refusing to either confirm or deny Frost's involvement in Mark Mylod and Francesca Gardiner's Wizarding World reboot, this news comes just days after the iconic actor-comedian shared a cryptic Instagram post saying "What a bloody lovely day! It's happening, it's actually happening. Stay cool." Now of course, that could be referring to anything — Frost is a consistently booked and busy talent who's just coming off a successful run as droid pirate SM-33 in Skeleton Crew, after all. But with John Lithgow, Paapa Essiedu, and Janet McTeer all boarding the Hogwarts Express in recent weeks (as Professors Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall respectively), it makes a lot of sense for the folks at Warner Bros. and HBO to have prioritised filling the both literally and figuratively enormous boots of the late, great Robbie Coltrane next. And should a deal be made, Frost, with his proclivity for playing lovable, loyal, slightly bumbling, but ever dependable and brilliantly funny men would be a hell of a piece of casting for one of Harry Potter's greatest characters.

Due to run over the course of the next decade, HBO's lucrative Harry Potter series is coming at a real inflection point for the Wizarding World at large. Mired in controversies involving its creator, the franchise — at least on screen — has struggled somewhat in recent years, with 2022's third Fantastic Beasts movie, The Secrets Of Dumbledore, prematurely bringing to a close Warner Bros' planned five-film prequel to the original Potter movies. But with the recent success of video game Hogwarts Legacy and these early castings showing that Mylod and Gardiner are committed to making their new show one that's both faithful to the books and inclusive of the diverse array of communities that have cherished them over the years, we remain cautiously optimistic that there's still magic to be found in the Wizarding World yet.