JK Rowling just dropped another Harry Potter bombshell

JK Rowling has revealed she deliberately never mentioned the ethnicity of one of her lead characters – after a black actress was cast in the role.

The cast was unveiled this week for highly anticipated stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – which will act as a sequel to the series.

Jamie Parker and Paul Thornley will play the roles of Harry Potter and Ron Weasley respectively – while the casting of Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger has divided reaction online.

Ms Dumezweni steps into the role previously played by Emma Watson – but author JK Rowling dropped a bombshell about the character while defending the casting choice.

The writer revealed that her original novels deliberately don’t mention Hermione’s ethnicity – and while the films chose to portray her as white, there’s plenty in the texts to suggest otherwise.

She tweeted: “Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione [kiss emoji]”.

The discussion is not a new one to the Harry Potter fandom, with many long having argued that Hermione could be black. Rowling shared some of the existing ‘black Hermione’ fanart.

It’s not the first revelation about her characters Rowling has made since concluding her novels.

The author revealed that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore was gay after the publication of the final Harry Potter book in 2007.

She said: “It has certainly never been news to me that a brave and brilliant man could love other men

“He is my character. He is what he is and I have the right to say what I say about him.”

Responding to a fan earlier this year who was seemingly having trouble “seeing [Dumbledore] in that way”, Rowling responded: “Maybe because gay people just look like… people?”

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