SNL Points Out the Issues With Harry Potter Hating Professor Snape in the New HBO Adaptations
So, remember when you were reading Harry Potter as a child and James Potter was, like, really mean towards Severus Snape? And basically hated him for existing and would be cruel to him for no reason? That was weird, right? Well, imagine if you keep that dynamic, but suddenly Snape is Black. That’s what HBO decided to do.
It’s important to remember that Snape was almost always the first person that Harry blamed for anything. Something was stolen? It was Snape. Something went wrong? Snape. Changing Snape’s race makes the animosity between him and Harry look a little bit different than it’s meant to.
Saturday Night Live tackled this on this week’s episode. During Weekend Update, cast member Kam Patterson showed up as Black Snape to comment on the casting.
Patterson goes on to talk about the other problematic aspects of the Harry Potter universe, like Kingsley Shacklebolt, who one of the few main Black characters, commenting that the name sounds like something out of a “Wu-Tang name generator.” And that’s not even touching Cho Chang herself.
There are just certain characters that you shouldn’t race- or gender-bend. While making white-dominant series more inclusive can be a good thing, there are times when you should think critically about what characters you’re changing and why. They did it successfully in the original movies with characters like Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson, so ignorance (or the need to feed off of controversy) is the only real explanation for this series’s choice.
There is also this line directly from the book from James, when asked why he didn’t like Snape: “It’s more the fact that he exists if you know what I mean.” And if the series actually plans to dig deeper into their history, well…that one is going to be a little awkward.
If this sketch doesn’t open your mind to the problems with this reboot, then nothing will
Of course, what Saturday Night Live brings up is only a fraction of the issues with rebooting this franchise. And while we can’t stop people from watching it, we can only ask that they go into it knowing what, exactly, they’re supporting. So maybe this Weekend Update guest will have you thinking about it as you’re laughing along with it.
Also, calling Harry Potter “The Proud Boy Who Lived” is beyond hysterical. When the writers hit gold they really hit is hard.
(featured image: NBC)
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