'Harry Potter' gets its Slughorn

Posted Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 4:33 PM Central

by John Couture

If there are any more Harry Potter news around these parts, we might have to simply turn into a Harry Potter site altogether. Today's news is something that we've been expecting for awhile, the casting of a central character in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Professor Horace Slughorn.

Venerable character actor Jim Broadbent (seen at right in Walt Disney's Around The World In 80 Days) has been tapped to join the Harry Potter universe. Slughorn is short and round with a walrus mustache and was the previous potions professor at Hogwarts and head of Slytherin. He's recruited by Professor Dumbledore to fill a vacant teaching position at Hogwarts.

Slughorn's biggest character flaw is his fascination with celebrities which leads to the creation of the "Slug Club" which was a group of those students that Slughorn deemed the brightest and the best at Hogwarts.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will debut in theaters on November 21, 2008.