Ben Barnes has already built substantial experience with fantasy franchises. In fact, his rise to prominence owes much to The Chronicles of Narnia, while in recent years he has also appeared in Shadow and Bone on Netflix, a series that was halted after its second season. Over the years, Barnes’s name has often been precisely the one fans hoped for when imagining a TV series set in the world of Harry Potter focused on the Marauders, the quartet of students comprising James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black. Years later, the actor has returned to the topic.
Harry Potter, Ben Barnes would not rule out playing Sirius Black
Harry Potter is returning in television form, a story eagerly awaited for December 2026 on the small screens of HBO Max, and yet there were once rumors that Warner Bros. planned to develop a spin-off focused on the Marauders, a project later scrapped. In light of that spin-off, fans promptly voiced their opinions about casting, reviving once again the name of Ben Barnes as Sirius Black.
Among the most popular fan-castings, Barnes’s name could still hold promise, as the actor recently revealed. In an interview with US Magazine, the star of Shadow and Bone admitted that he is aware of the fans’ desire to see him in Harry Potter as Sirius Black: “You cannot imagine how many Harry Potter books I have signed, or how many Gryffindor scarves I have been gifted. The amount of fan fiction I have enthusiastically become a part of is incredible, and this has been going on for… it’s been twenty years since people kindly told me they would like me to portray a younger version of this character, Sirius Black, in Harry Potter.”
The bad news, according to Barnes, is followed by good: “It has gone on for so long that I am now the age of the character in the books.” It seems, then, that he could no longer portray a young Sirius Black, but he would be a viable candidate for the adult version in the Harry Potter franchise. Could he be considered for the TV series? “I feel I would be doing a disservice to the millions of people who have written to me – probably twelve people, but I would be disrespecting them and the years they have devoted to it – if I said that, should they contact me about it, I would not want to be involved.” In any case, the actor clarified that he has not yet discussed the matter with the interested parties, so it’s simply a possibility.
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