This is the grown-up Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley who will appear in next year’s highly anticipated stage play – and they’re very different from their big screen counterparts.

Harry will be played by 36-year-old Jamie Parker, an original member of Alan Bennett’s History Boys cast at the National Theatre, while Paul Thornley has been cast as Ron Weasley.

Ron, his hair now receding, is married to Hermione – a part won by Noma Dumezweni, 45, who was born in Swaziland to South African parents fleeing apartheid. She moved with her mother and sister to Suffolk when she was seven.

Transformation: (from left) Paul Thornley has been cast as Ron Weasley, Noma Dumezweni as Hermione Granger and Jamie Parker as Harry Potter - they will star in stage play Harry Potter and The Cursed Child

They will star in Harry Potter And The Cursed Child which, although it does not begin performances at London’s Palace Theatre until late May, has already sold more than a quarter of a million tickets.

Some 175,000 seats were sold in just 24 hours, a West End record. The show was devised by Harry Potter author JK Rowling, playwright Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, who will also direct the cast of 30.

Thorne turned the piece into a magical drama that will play in two parts. Audiences can see both on the same day – at a matinee and evening performance – or on two consecutive evenings each week.

The play is expected to be the biggest theatrical event in London next year.

Tiffany worked with Dumezweni and Thornley while he and producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender were developing the piece. They acted out scenes for the director to see how they would look.

Back in time: The grown-up actors couldn't be more different to the child stars - Daniel Radcliffe (centre), Emma Warson and Rupert Grint - who originally took on the roles for the films

Magical: The highly-anticipated play, which doesn't open until late May, broke a West End record after selling some 175,000 tickets in just 24 hours

In the eight films Harry, Hermione and Ron were played by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, ending with The Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 2011.

However, Rowling never made a point of Hermione’s ethnicity, and there’s no textual evidence to indicate that she is, necessarily, white.

Hermione is described as having unruly brown ‘bushy hair’, which she hates. In fact there are screeds of essays and scholarly works arguing that Hermione could be black. One piece observed that she was born to Muggle, non-wizard, parents and was considered an outsider at Hogwarts – and coded as a racial minority in the wizarding world.

At Hogwarts, Hermione was often taunted as a ‘Mudblood’, an insult thrown at Muggle-born wizards.

Director Tiffany said he had simply cast the best possible actors, noting that they ‘will be an incredible and estimable triumvirate’.

Issue: The stage show casting raises the question of Hermione's ethnicity, with several scholars arguing that there is no textual evidence in the book to indicate that she is white. Pictured, Emma Watson who played Hermione in the films

Best in show: Director Tiffany said he had simply cast the best possible actors, noting that they ‘will be an incredible and estimable triumvirate’. Pictured, Daniel Radcliffe, left, and, right, as Harry Potter

Dumezweni, who lives with her young daughter in London, took over the title role in the play Linda, now running at the Royal Court, with only four days notice after Sex And The City star Kim Cattrall dropped out. Her performance received rave reviews.

She won an Olivier award in 2006 for her role in the play A Raisin In The Sun, is an associate of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has appeared in Doctor Who.

Thornley, who is married to and has two children with Casualty star Chloe Howman, has made countless appearances on such staple fare as Holby City, Doctors, Poirot and Life Begins. And he played opposite Olivia Colman in the film London Road.

It is likely that once the project gets under way his hair will be dyed ginger like Ron’s.

Parker, who is expected to don Harry’s famous glasses, has had a stellar career, having struck gold as Scripps in The History Boys. He has played Henry V on stage and Hamlet on the radio. He is presently playing Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls at the Savoy Theatre.

Creator: JK Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, devised the show, with the help of playwright Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, who will also direct the cast of 30

Performance: The play follows on from the epilogue featured in both the novel and film of The Deathly Hallows. Harry is now head of the Auror division at the Ministry of Magic, where Ron also works. Hermione works as a lawyer in the department of Magical Law Enforcement. Pictured, Ralph Fiennes as Voldemort in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

Producer Friedman said the casting was a collective decision involving Rowling, Tiffany, Thorne, Callender and herself. ‘We were all involved with all the key casting decisions,’ she told the Daily Mail.

The play follows on from the epilogue featured in both the novel and film of The Deathly Hallows. Harry is now head of the Auror division at the Ministry of Magic, where Ron also works. Hermione works as a lawyer in the department of Magical Law Enforcement.

Official previews for The Cursed Child begin on June 7, though there will be some in late May that will be available to the public. The official opening is July 30.