I have just watched Paapa Essiedu in clips of the RSC at the Lowry and he absolutely has the acting chops to pull off Snape and do it well. In different circumstances, I absolutely would love to see him do a reading of the potions speech just because that delivery would be spectacular. Also the scene at the end of both POA and GOF because this man can do both fear and rage - seriously check out his Hamlet here and here
He has the build and with a little finessing of the descriptions of the character he absolutely could be tall, thin, lanky haired (wig) with a prominent (not necessarily hooked, but prominent) nose and unhealthy pallor. It would be no more an extreme change than casting a brunet as a blond, or a blue eyed kid as a character with green eyes.
He could speak to the American audience to open up the issues of class that Snape as a character faced in the UK in the 1970s, though there is an entire can of worms to be handled with extreme care if they're going to lean into his color and not just hand wave it as colorblind casting (which might be the better option, honestly, do you want Rowling to be consciously writing a black man? Give her three episodes she'll have single-handedly revived the blacksploitation genre with this character...)
My concern, other than Rowling's inability to write anyone who isn't cis, straight and Whitey McWhiteface with even an ounce of cultural sensitivity, is this;
Does this actor with the world at his feet really want to subject himself to the years of rampant and vicious racism from the audience that playing Snape will inspire?
Does he want to be the face of a clueless and unwilling to learn white writer grappling with racial issues using a character that she has already made it clear she ardently dislikes?
Does he want to throw away his credibility as an actor by throwing in his lot with a production that we already know is going to fail utterly?
Any actor who takes any role in that series has to accept that they are throwing in their lot with Rowling and that they will be expected to toe the line of not speaking against her politics. I don't know what his politics are, but he needs to know what he's willing to support and what he isn't if he chooses to proceed (this goes for all actors coming into this franchise).
If he has the support system to weather the racism and he thinks he can make it a good piece for his portfolio then it might be worth it for him, but he's no starving young actor desperate for a break. He's headlined for the RSC at the Lowry, twice. He doesn't need Rowling or HBO.
Most of the fandom who would be his character's natural fanbase aren't going to be watching for as long as JK has creative control or benefits from it, so it's going to be a lonely few years and a hard slog to for him connecting with audiences until the show eventually fizzles out before he even gets chance to play the character redeemed or sympathetic (if it isn't cancelled before then).
The issue is not a black man playing Snape, the issue is JK Rowling writing Snape as a black man. We saw how she fucked up the media coverage of Black Hermione, and she liked that character.
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