A new Harry Potter screen adaptation calls for a new Lucius Malfoy — and Jason Isaacs has an A-list candidate in mind.

The English actor, who spent six films playing the imperious Slytherin wizard, was recently asked who he thinks should fill his shoes in HBO’s highly anticipated Harry Pottery TV series and portray Lucius, the patriarch of the Malfoy family and father to Harry’s nemesis Draco.

“Meryl Streep,” Isaacs told Variety. “She can do anything, that woman. There’s literally no limit to what she can do.”

To his point, the three-time Oscar winner has certainly proven capable of summoning a prideful, icy demeanor (see: The Devil Wears Prada, The Iron Lady). All she needs now is a wand and some green accessories.

After years of rumblings, HBO’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed in 2023 that J.K. Rowling‘s best-selling book series would be getting a “faithful adaptation” in the form of a TV show, with each Harry Potter novel expected to get its own season. So far only John Lithgow has been confirmed to star in the upcoming series, as beloved Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

Whoever else ends up in the ensemble cast, they won’t get much guidance from Isaac, because he doesn’t think they’ll need it. “I wouldn’t have any advice at all,” he told Variety. “Why would I bother? I know some of the people they’re casting already. They’re brilliant actors. It’s going to be fantastic, and the last thing they need is advice from some old fart like me.”

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Earlier this year, Isaacs confessed that filming the Harry Potter movies wasn’t the dream experience that fans might assume.

“They weren’t that much fun to make,” he said on BBC’s The One Show. “It’s quite boring making big special effects films; however, the pleasures all come afterward. I see and meet people for whom their lives were changed by it, and still people reading it and sharing it with their children. Some people say their lives were saved by it, and I believe it.”

As any Potterhead will tell you, the Harry Potter series follows a plucky British kid whose 11th birthday brings the revelation that he’s the orphaned son of two powerful wizards. He soon leaves normal life behind to begin his studies at Hogwarts, a magical boarding school where he comes of age and battles the evil sorcerer who killed his parents. The franchise has become a worldwide phenomenon spawning games, toys, clothing lines, prequel films, a stage play, theme parks, and more.

Francesca Gardiner (Succession, His Dark Materials, Killing Eve) is serving as showrunner, writer, and executive producer of the TV adaptation, while Mark Mylod (Succession, Game of Thrones) will direct multiple episodes and also executive-produce. Rowling is an executive producer as well, which has sparked significant controversy due to her persistent anti-trans remarks.

In recent years, the author has become an outspoken critic of transgender activism, sharing social media posts with inflammatory comments and rhetoric that many deem transphobic (a sentiment Rowling has denied). A vocal portion of the Potter fandom has shunned the author as a result, and her comments have been condemned by several stars of the Harry Potter movies, including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Eddie Redmayne, while others — such as Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes — have come to her defense.

Isaacs has largely avoided the debate, aside from offering a statement in 2022.

“There’s a bunch of stuff about Jo. You know, I play complicated people, I’m interested in complicated people,” he told The Telegraph. “I don’t want to get drawn into the trans issues, talking about them, because it’s such an extraordinary minefield. She has her opinions, I have mine. They differ in many different areas.”

He added, “For all that she has said some very controversial things, I was not going to be jumping to stab her in the front — or back — without a conversation with her, which I’ve not managed to have yet.”