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      ‘Harry Potter’ HBO Series Casts Dumbledore, Hagrid and More Major Roles

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      John Lithgow will play the Hogwarts headmaster in the HBO show, with Paapa Essiedu filling the role of Severus Snape.Potterheads are one step closer to seeing a television series about the boy wizard come to life, two years after it was announced.HBO said on Monday that it had cast John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid.Casting for major roles like Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley has not been announced, and the series — based on the best-selling books by J.K. Rowling — does not have an official title or air date.HBO also said that Luke Thallon and Paul Whitehouse were joining the cast as Quirinus Quirrell and Argus Filch.“We’re delighted to have such extraordinary talent onboard, and we can’t wait to see them bring these beloved characters to new life,” Francesca Gardiner, the showrunner of the series, and Mark Mylod, who will direct several episodes, said in a joint statement. (They are both also executive producers of the show.)Paapa Essiedu will play Severus Snape in the show.Neil Hall/EPA, via ShutterstockLithgow starred in the 1990s television series “3rd Rock From the Sun” and won Emmys for his roles in “Dexter” and “The Crown.” He has also won two Tony Awards and has an extensive movie career; he played one of the cardinals contending for the papacy in last year’s “Conclave.”He told ScreenRant in February that he had signed on to play Dumbledore, a role played in the original “Harry Potter” films by Richard Harris, who died in 2002, and Michael Gambon, who died in 2023. (Jude Law played a younger Dumbledore in “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore,” a spinoff film.)“It was not an easy decision because it’s going to define me for the last chapter of my life, I’m afraid,” Lithgow said then. “But I’m very excited. Some wonderful people are turning their attention back to ‘Harry Potter.’ That’s why it’s been such a hard decision. I’ll be about 87 years old at the wrap party, but I’ve said yes.”The new show will air on HBO and stream on Max. HBO said in 2023 that the series would be a “faithful adaptation” of the seven books published between 1997 and 2007. Eight hit films were released between 2001 and 2011. More

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      ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Creator Discusses His New Anime ‘Lazarus’

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      In an interview, Shinichiro Watanabe discusses his latest anime, “Lazarus,” a pharmaceutical mystery set in the near future.Shinichiro Watanabe’s first anime, “Cowboy Bebop,” was quite an opening act. A story of space bounty hunters trying to scrape by, its genre mash-up of westerns, science fiction and noir, with a jazzy soundtrack, was a critical and commercial success in Japan and beyond. Its American debut on Adult Swim, in 2001, is now considered a milestone in the popularization of anime in the United States.Not one to repeat himself, Watanabe followed up “Bebop” with a story about samurai and hip-hop (“Samurai Champloo,” 2004); a coming-of-age story about jazz musicians (“Kids on the Slope,” 2012); a mystery thriller about teenage terrorists (“Terror in Resonance,” 2014); an animated “Blade Runner” sequel (“Blade Runner Black Out 2022,” 2017); and a sci-fi musical show about two girls on Mars (“Carole & Tuesday,” 2019).Now, he has returned to the kind of sci-fi action that made his name with “Lazarus,” streaming on Max and airing on Adult Swim, with new episodes arriving on Sundays. The show is set in 2055, after the disappearance of a doctor who discovered a miracle drug that has no side effects. Three years later, the doctor resurfaces with an announcement: The drug had a three-year half-life, and everyone who took it will die in 30 days unless someone finds him and the cure he developed.Watanabe has never been shy about being a fan of cinema. “Cowboy Bebop,” for instance, makes specific references to films like “Alien” and “2001: A Space Odyssey.” For “Lazarus,” Watanabe went further, teaming with a Hollywood filmmaker, the “John Wick” director Chad Stahelski, to design the thrilling, kinetic action sequences of the anime.In a video interview, Watanabe, speaking through the interpreters (and co-producers on the series) Takenari Maeda and Saechan, discussed the making of “Lazarus,” the timeliness of the show’s story and how watching the original “Blade Runner” inspired his multicultural and inclusive anime casts. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.Unlike your previous sci-fi projects, “Lazarus” takes place not on a distant planet or far into the future, but in our world just 30 years from now. Why was that important?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Isabela Merced Is Ready to Slay (and Not Just Zombies)

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      On a cool morning in late March, the actress and singer Isabela Merced was walking BonBon, her Chihuahua, on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. “He likes to be behind you,” she warned after we became tangled. Her dog Pluto, whom she adopted in Australia while shooting “Dora and the Lost City of Gold,” had stayed home that morning. Pluto was rescued with three legs.“He tried to jump over a fence that wasn’t completely done,” she explained.In Season 2 of the hit HBO series “The Last of Us,” which began on Sunday, Merced plays the new character Dina, a wry, flirty, tough-talking orphan who loves killing clickers, the most afflicted of the show’s fungus-infected zombies. “That’s her hobby!” Merced said.Dina also has a thing for Ellie (Bella Ramsey), her killing partner. In the season’s first episode, their relationship heats up with a kiss during a dance at a holiday party, as Dina’s on-again-off-again boyfriend Jesse (Young Mazino) — and much of the rest of the town — watches from the sidelines. Dina seems positively gleeful to play the provocatrice.“I’d like to imagine that’s how I would be in the Apocalypse,” Merced said of her character.Isabela Merced, left, and Bella Ramsey in a scene from the Season 2 premiere of “The Last of Us.”Liane Hentscher/HBOWill Ellie and Dina’s love last? “I would love to tell you everything!” she said. Because of some major plot twists, however, HBO has kept a tight rein on what it shares with journalists about the new season — and on what its stars can talk about.“I love talking,” she said, “So yeah, it’s been very hard for me.”After a run of critically applauded but less-visible roles, Merced, 23, may be at a turning point with “The Last of Us,” a hugely popular and award-winning series in which she plays a starring role. (Its first season became HBO’s most watched debut season and garnered 24 Emmy nominations, winning eight). Dina is central to the second season’s vengeance-driven plot, her humor and sarcasm a coping mechanism in a postapocalyptic world overrun by hordes of mushroom-headed zombies.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘WrestleMania 41,’ Plus 8 Things to Watch on TV this Week

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      John Cena continues his farewell tour, and ‘Abbott Elementary’ concludes its fourth season.Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that air or stream this week, April 14-20. Details and times are subject to change.They’re baaaaaack.The next installment of “Ghost Adventures” is here. In a hair-raising two-hour special, paranormal investigators Zak Bagans, Aaron Goodwin, Jay Wasley and Billy Tolley confront mysterious occurrences and possibly supernatural entities lurking within the walls of the suburban house where the 1982 cult-classic film “Poltergeist” was filmed. Wednesday at 10 p.m. on Discovery and streaming Thursday on Discovery+ and Max.“Ghosts” stars Rose McIver and Utkarsh Ambudkar, foreground.Bertrand Calmeau/CBSAdapted from the original British comedy and now in its fourth season, “Ghosts” follows a young couple after they inherit a dilapidated estate — but they soon discover there’s much more than just mice and mold hiding in the shadows. With a few trapped souls in their midst, the couple finds that running a bread-and-breakfast is more complicated than they’d originally thought. Thursday on CBS.This next show introduces a different kind of haunted house into the mix: a sterile suburban home with white walls and no personality. Through clever renovations, house flippers and skilled designers — Jonathan Knight, a member of the boy band New Kids on the Block and host of HGTV’s “Farmhouse Fixer,” among them — resurrect a set of drab, identical homes as they compete for bragging rights and the highest appraisal on “Rock the Block.” The sixth season premieres Monday on HGTV at 9 p.m. and streaming Tuesday on Discovery+ and Max.Field trips and life lessons.Sheryl Lee Ralph, left, and Quinta Brunson in “Abbott Elementary.”Gilles Mingasson/Disney, vía Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 1: Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

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      It seems this season will be driven by one simple idea: that when Joel saved Ellie at the end of Season 1 and then lied to her, he made a mess.‘The Last of Us’ Season 2, Episode 1: ‘Future Days’“The Last of Us” began with a prologue that set up everything about to happen, in the episode and in the series. In a scene set in 1968, a scientist explained that his greatest fear was that a warming planet would provide the perfect incubating conditions for a mind-controlling fungus that could turn humans into brainless killers. There is obviously more to “The Last of Us” than just, “What if there were mushroom zombies?” But that idea put the plot in motion.The second season of “The Last of Us” begins with two prologues. In one, we meet Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), one of the surviving Fireflies from the Season 1 finale’s Salt Lake City massacre. Abby and her fellow resistance-fighters gather around their loved one’s graves to discuss a plan to retaliate against Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal), the man who slaughtered so many of their people. (“Slowly,” Abby says, when her allies say they will kill Joel.)In the other prologue, we flash back to the final scene from that finale, when Ellie (Bella Ramsey) made Joel swear that he took her away from the Fireflies because they had given up on finding a cure for the cordyceps plague. Joel gave Ellie his word, which she warily accepted.I expect there to be as many twists, turns, new characters and new story lines in Season 2 as there were in Season 1. But based on the premiere, it seems this season will also be driven by one simple idea: that when Joel saved Ellie from the Fireflies and then lied to her, he made a godawful mess.After the prologues, the episode jumps ahead five years. Joel and Ellie are now settled in Jackson, Wyo., the edenic survivor colony run in part by Joel’s brother, Tommy (Gabriel Luna), and Tommy’s wife, Maria (Rutina Wesley). Joel is making himself useful with his fix-it know-how, and Ellie has been honing her fighting skills and going on patrols, to gather supplies and to winnow down the numbers of the infected in the area. But while they seem reasonably content, something has soured between them.As I mentioned in my reviews last season, one of my great fascinations with any postapocalyptic story is in seeing how people make fortresses for themselves, sealed off from the surrounding mayhem — and also seeing how they try to build fulfilling lives inside their hidey-holes. So it’s a pleasure early in this episode to get reacquainted with Jackson, a place that has electricity, agriculture, law, and even culture in the form of music and dancing.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jean Marsh, Actress Who Co-Created ‘Upstairs, Downstairs,’ Dies at 90

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      She not only helped develop the hit 1970s show, but also acted in it, and had a decades-long career in film, TV and theater.Jean Marsh, the striking British-born actress who was both the co-creator and a beloved Emmy-winning star of “Upstairs, Downstairs,” the seminal 1970s British drama series about class in Edwardian England, died on Sunday at her home in London. She was 90.The cause was complications of dementia, the filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, her close friend, said.“Upstairs, Downstairs” captured the hearts, minds and Sunday nights of Anglophile PBS viewers decades before “Downton Abbey” was even a gleam in Julian Fellowes’s eye.The show, which ran from 1971 to 1975 in England and from 1974 to 1977 in the United States, focused on the elegant Bellamy family and the staff of servants who kept their Belgravia townhouse running smoothly, according to the precise social standards of Edwardian aristocracy. Ms. Marsh chose the role of Rose, the household’s head parlor maid, a stern but good-hearted Cockney.The New York Times review, in January 1974, was affectionate. John J. O’Connor described the show as “a charmingly seductive concoction” and a “frequently marvelous portrait.” He praised Ms. Marsh for playing Rose with “the perfection of a young Mildred Dunnock.”By the time the show ended its American run, it had won a Peabody Award and seven Emmys. Ms. Marsh herself took home the 1975 Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a drama series.Robert Blake and Ms. Marsh hold up their Emmys for best actor and best actress in a drama series at the Emmy Awards in 1975.Associated PressWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Nicky Katt, Actor Known For ‘Dazed And Confused,’ Dies at 54

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      He began his career as a child actor and later played tough guys and henchmen. He was best known for “Boston Public” and “Dazed and Confused.”Nicky Katt, an actor known for playing wild cards and tough guys on TV shows like “Boston Public” and in films like “Boiler Room” and “Dazed and Confused,” has died. He was 54.His death was confirmed by his lawyer, John Sloss, who did not provide any further details.Mr. Katt began his career as a child actor and later became a character actor specializing in unsympathetic henchmen, working with acclaimed directors like Richard Linklater, Christopher Nolan and Steven Soderbergh.Mr. Katt was regularly cast as a pushy, temperamental man whose virtues, if any, were not immediately self-evident.In “Dazed and Confused,” he is a nerd-shoving high school taunter who grits his teeth while pummeling a fellow teen. “I only came here to do two things, man: kick some ass and drink some beer,” Mr. Katt, as Clint Bruno, said with cocky bravado. “Looks like we’re almost out of beer.”In “Boston Public” (Fox, 2000-2004), a show about an urban high school, Mr. Katt played Harry Senate, a geology teacher and charismatic rule breaker who brings his class to attention by firing blanks out of a pistol, but who also successfully disarms a student threatening another teacher with a gun.Mr. Katt, third from left, with the cast of the television show “Boston Public.”Everett CollectionIn a 2002 interview with The Los Angeles Times, Mr. Soderbergh described Mr. Katt’s performances as “dangerously out of control” but rigorously studied.“He’s absolutely fearless,” Mr. Soderbergh said. “No idea is too outrageous. He’ll try anything.”Nicky Katt was born in May 1970 in South Dakota. He appeared on several TV shows, including “Fantasy Island” and “CHiPs,” as a preteen.Complete information about his family and survivors was not immediately available.Talking to The Los Angeles Times, Mr. Katt said he found most actors to be either desperate or frustrated. To cope with the vagaries of the profession, Mr. Katt amassed a wide repertoire of quotes and anecdotes from celebrated figures of the past.One piece of advice: “You should never name-drop,” he said. “De Niro told me that.” More

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      ‘The Last of Us’ Review: On the Road Again

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      Season 2 of HBO’s zombie drama begins with Joel and Ellie safe and settled. One guess how long that lasts.HBO’s video-game-inspired, postapocalyptic hit “The Last of Us” likes to cover all its zombie bases. The first season emphasized urban hellscapes — lots of cowering and running in the ruins of Boston, Kansas City and Salt Lake City — while moving toward the open spaces of Wyoming. Season 2, premiering Sunday, goes the other direction, starting out as a grisly western — stockaded town, horse patrols, waves of attackers — but moving back to the city, this time an emptied-out Seattle.Wherever it goes, though, “The Last of Us” remains (as my colleague James Poniewozik pointed out in his Season 1 review) a zombie tale that polishes and elaborates on the conventions of the genre but does not transcend them. The course of its action and the dynamics of its relationships run in familiar grooves, lubricated by generous applications of blood and goo.Where the show has differed from the genre standard is in the dramatic weight and screen time it devotes to those relationships, or, seen another way, in its sentimentality. (I say potahto.)Other zombie shows flesh out love, friendship and loyalty just enough to provide a little extra frisson when a character becomes lunch. “The Last of Us,” which was created and is still overseen by Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin, doesn’t reverse that equation — it still spends time, and a lot of HBO’s money, on elaborate scenes of mayhem, in close quarters or on broad canvases. But it really wants you to care. If the Hallmark Channel had a zombie drama, it might look like a PG version of “The Last of Us.”At the heart of the series, making the greatest demands on our emotions, is the Mutt and Jeff pairing of Joel (Pedro Pascal) — a hard case whose daughter was killed at the beginning of the show’s zombie-spawning fungal pandemic — and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), a teenager he met two decades later. Ellie, who would try the patience of adults far saintlier than Joel, happens to be immune to the fungus, and in Season 1 Joel reluctantly agreed to take her on a cross-country journey in pursuit of a cure. They emerged from the perilous, season-long road trip as each other’s surrogate family.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More