Most of Team StarKid’s Q&A panel at LeakyCon this weekend dealt with the new A Very Potter Senior Year show, so we can’t reveal much information gained from it due to StarKid’s spoiler policy. However, you may enjoy the spoiler-free video below addressing some past casting choices!

Nick Lang, Matt Lang and A.J. Holmes discuss casting the first Very Potter show, and recall the day when Matt Lang made the final decision and cast the students who would soon go on to become Team StarKid. When he revealed his final choices, two particular roles were met with disdain by the group and dubbed the “worst casting they’d ever heard of.” Those two ridiculed casting choices were Darren Criss as Harry Potter and Lauren Lopez as Draco Malfoy.

Hilarious, right? What would A Very Potter Musical be without Lauren’s brilliant and hysterical portrayal of Draco, and in regards to Darren, the group originally thought he wasn’t “doey-eyed” enough to play The Boy Who Lived in what was actually meant to be a slightly more serious and faithful adaptation. Brian Rosenthal, who ended up playing James Potter (along with other roles) was originally considered for Harry Potter, and we can certainly imagine his Harry being innocent, sympathetic and vulnerable, but, as Nick Lang says, due to Darren, Harry now “has to be” what he became in the shows. Fans of Blaine Anderson will vouch for the power of Darren’s doe eyes, but it cannot be denied that his Harry is an obnoxious, charming fratboy-esque character who gets away with everything, and this portrayal apparently changed the direction of the Very Potter shows.

Before being cast as Draco, Lauren Lopez was considered for Hermione, which she says she feels like she “dodged a bullet” on and that it “wouldn’t have been right,” and before Dylan Saunders was asked to play Dumbledore, the creators were exploring the possibility of Joe Walker playing both Voldemort and Dumbledore!

What do you think of these early ideas? Can you imagine A Very Potter Musical with these changes?