Credit: Warner Bros.Dolores Umbridge has returned to torment Harry Potter and all his little friends once again.
Legendary British actress Imelda Staunton is returning to the role of Dolores Umbridge, the notoriously hateful Defence Against the Dark Arts instructor at Hogwarts. Staunton portrayed the pink-clad, passive-aggressive secret villain in The Order of the Phoenix (2007) and The Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2011) and, despite appearing in only two installments of the movie series, is widely regarded as one of the franchise’s most iconic evildoers.
In fact, Imelda Staunton’s version of Dolores Umbridge is widely considered one of the most hated characters in all of fiction, which is pretty impressive, considering the literally thousands of years of recorded texts and bad guys out there.
Bustle writer Charlotte Ahlin memorably commented about Professor Umbridge: “Voldemort may have been the most evil character in the Harry Potter universe, but Dolores Umbridge was almost certainly the most hated.”
“Unlike Voldy, she didn’t represent an abstract form of authoritarian evil. She was that mean teacher you had in high school, that one mom on the PTA who thinks that rap music is destroying America … Her brand of bigotry was just so relatable, and her nastiness got under every reader’s skin.”
No surprise, then, that Imelda Staunton is returning as Dolores Umbridge for the ongoing franchise-wide reboot of Harry Potter (per Deadline). Staunton will reprise her role in the upcoming The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic ride at the Universal Epic Universe theme park in Orlando, FL; a clip of the actress hints that her character will be depicted as standing trial for her crimes committed while secretly serving Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes).
Check it here:
Universal describes the new Wizarding World park attraction thusly, “Encounter fantastic beasts as you explore wizarding Paris in the 1920s, then take the Métro-Floo to the British Ministry in the 1990s for new thrills with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Get ready to explore the excitement of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ – Ministry of Magic™, opening 2025 at Universal Epic Universe.”
Epic Universe is Universal’s big swing at finally overtaking Walt Disney World as Florida’s premiere theme park attraction, so it makes sense that it would bring some big guns out for its new Harry Potter ride. We wouldn’t be at all surprised if Dolores Umbridge was not the only baddie that pops up while park visitors check out the incredible environs of a magic governmental office park.
The Harry Potter franchise is also being rebooted as a seven-season HBO series, so it really seems like Warner Bros. Pictures is pulling out the stops when it comes to Wizarding World. We’ll just have to see how things turn out for the series creator in the meantime…
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