Paapa Essiedu, who grew up a fan of the Harry Potter franchise, said his casting as Severus Snape in HBO's new series has been met with racism and death threats. "I've been told, 'Quit or I'll murder you,'" he recently told The Times. For someone who spent much of his adolescence reading the novels, the reception has been painful. "It really matters. The reality is that if I look at Instagram, I will see somebody saying, 'I'm going to come to your house and kill you,'" he continued. The situation has grown so negative that people in his life "see stuff and message to ask if I'm okay.