Originally posted by Tiom:

get that Harry Potter @$%^ outta here!

Seriously though - Have not seen anything mentioning spell casting.

Rune powers, Shamans, cultists and theire lovely fire blasts, draugr and skeleton spawners, surtling and fire...

and the list goes on.

While we do not have access to using all things magical, we do have some and using the run powers could be considered casting.

So while its not harry potter in the sense you seem to have such intense distaste for, we do have magic.

But whether or not the developers intend for players to use more magical means of things in the form of casting spells outside of rune powers remains to be seen.

My guess at this point is that most likely there wont be as this would render most of the current progression for armor and weapons etc less impacting to the game or not at all.