The original Harry Potter cast announcement was 15 years ago this week

This week marks 15 years since Warner Bros announced the casting of the three leads in the Harry Potter series.

As flagged by BBC journalist Lizo Mzimba, the original cast announcement press release was sent out 15 years to the day, and a few days later a very young Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint appeared in front of cameras for the first time.

As producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura noted at the time:

We searched through all Muggle and Wizard households to find just the right young people to play Harry, Ron and Hermione and we have found them in Dan, Rupert and Emma. These are magical roles, the kind that come around once in a lifetime, and they required talented children who can bring magic to the screen.

The 15-year anniversary even got JK Rowling's attention.

Altogether now, aw...

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