Simon Pegg joins Harry Potter world as Sirius Black ancestor in Hogwarts Legacy
Simon Pegg is joining the wizarding world of Harry Potter in a role that also offers further insights into the sprawling Hogwarts Legacy video game.
The World's End and Mission: Impossible actor takes the role of Phineas Nigellus Black, an ancestor of Sirius Black. Specifically, he's Sirius' great-great-grandfather. He also has the reputation of being the least popular Headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
The character was revealed Wednesday in an announcement video from the game's publisher, which also unveiled nine other actors who will voice characters in the game.
"We saw Phineas in the books and in the films. He was a portrait in Dumbledore's office," Pegg notes in the video. It had already been announced that Hogwarts Legacy will take place during the 1800s, but Pegg now confirms "this was at a time when [Phineas] was actually actively the Headmaster."
The official character description for Phineas calls him "cantankerous" and someone who hails "from a long lineage of Slytherins."
"Headmaster Black is hated by the students, of whom he also has a great disdain for," it reads. "Wildly ill suited to his job, his goal is to do the least amount of work possible and avoid exposure to the student body — preferring to focus on his status in the wizarding world and his surgically manicured beard."
Players will begin the story of Hogwarts Legacy as a fifth-year student. In this open-world game, they can explore new and familiar locations in the wizarding world around Hogwarts, discover magical beasts, dabble in potions, master spells, and even delve into the Dark Arts.
Joining Pegg in the game is a troupe of actors, including a Harry Potter film alum.
Sebastian Croft and Amelia Gething provide the two voice options for the game's playable avatar, which can be customized further to the player's preferred witch or wizard.
Downton Abbey's Lesley Nicol, who actually auditioned for the role of Molly Weasley in the films, will now voice a Weasley in Hogwarts Legacy. Nicol will play Professor Matilda Weasley, a Gryffindor and the Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts. She "aids the player in catching up with the other students by giving them the Wizard's Field Guide and showing them the Room of Requirement," according to a description.
Kandace Caine will play Professer Onai, who was once a Divination teacher at Uagadou, the largest wizarding school in the world located in Uganda. She is "a gifted Seer whose faith in her sight was shaken by the fact that she did not foresee the loss of her husband," her description reads. "Deciding to leave those painful memories behind, she accepts an invitation by Professor Weasley to teach Divination at Hogwarts."
Luke Youngblood, who played Lee Jordan in the film series, makes a return for Hogwarts Legacy to voice half-blood Ravenclaw student Everett Clopton, described as an "underachieving rule-breaker and prankster."
Sohm Kapila (The Morning Show, General Hospital) plays Satyavati Shah, the professor of astronomy; Asif Ali (WandaVision, Don't Worry Darling) will play book-worm Ravenclaw student Amit Thakkar; Adam O'Connor will play muggle-born Ravenclaw peer Mahendra Pehlwaan; and veteran voice actor Jason Anthony will play both Nearly Headless Nick and the Sorting Hat.
Hogwarts Legacy will launch worldwide on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on February 10. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions will arrive April 4, and the Nintendo Switch drop is coming July 25.
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated that actor Asif Ali will be playing the character Mahendra Pehlwaan in Hogwarts Legacy, based on a press release. A rep for Warner Bros. Games and Avalanche Software has since clarified that actor Adam O'Connor is voicing Mahendra, while Ali voices a separate character named Amit Thakkar.
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