I’m still impressed by how great the Harry Potter movies did by acknowledging most of J.K. Rowling’s source material, but there were inevitably certain characters who were deemed surplus to requirements during the adaptation process. Because the upcoming HBO series will have far more screen time to play with, it stands to reason that showrunner Francesca Gardiner and company will find room for the figures from the books who were either not in the movies at all or were given significantly less to do on the big screen.
Set to premiere on December 25 of this year, the Harry Potter show is finally making a quiet admission that the franchise is perfect for the holidays. One of the biggest presents many Potterheads will be hoping for this Christmas is the ultra-faithful adaptation that was promised when the project was first announced. While certain details have already confirmed the new version of the story will take some creative liberties, that was pretty much always to be expected, given the complex nature of book-to-screen translations. Still, there’s no reason not to believe that the show will improve upon the movies’ book-accurate approach by presenting a more complete cast of characters. With the recent casting of Peeves, it’s looking promising that we’ll be getting more live-action Harry Potter debutants.
Frank & Alice Longbottom
Matthew Lewis’ Neville Longbottom had a relatively big part to play in the Harry Potter movies, but his story still paled in comparison to his counterpart in the books. While most of what Rowling had established regarding Neville’s life can also be assumed as canon in the movies, huge parts are left to occur off-screen. One of the darkest and most pivotal moments in his arc is relegated to a handful of throwaway lines. Neville’s parents were tortured via the Cruciatus Curse to the point of insanity by a group of Death Eaters, in an attempt to force information out of them regarding Voldemort’s whereabouts after their leader fell.
Gary Oldman’s Sirius Black sums this up very quickly in 2007’s Order of the Phoenix by explaining to Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) that the Longbottoms suffered a “fate worse than death.” As long-term residents of St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Frank and Alice appear in a heartbreaking sequence in the book on which the movie was based. That would probably be the main sequence in which they’d feature in the HBO series, presumably in Season 5. However, opportunities for flashbacks could open up other chances to see the respected former Aurors.
Charlie Weasley
The Weasley family isn’t just known for being universally ginger, but also numerous. Molly and Arthur Weasley had a total of six children, but the movies only ever gave five of them any notable screen time. While Charlie does technically feature in the movies, his lone appearance comes in the background of a family photo in 2004’s The Prisoner of Azkaban. Although the movies do honor his career as a dragonolist, they station him a little too solidly in his book-accurate location of Romania. As a result, he’s missing from several seminal moments in the feature-length adaptations of Rowling’s work, including the Battle of Hogwarts.
Charlie is a perfect example of the kind of fringe character that the movies decided to sideline, but not completely remove. With such a high-concept universe and emotional storyline to bring to life, it makes sense that Charlie could conveniently be elsewhere throughout the movies. If anything, it’s lucky that Rowling stationed him in Romania in the books. It was a perfect get-out clause. The HBO series won’t have the same restrictions as the films, though. As such, there’s no real excuse why Charlie can’t show up in the episodes that correspond to the correct pages of the books.
Marietta Edgecombe
Although Marietta is an incredibly minor character in the books, her betrayal of Harry and the others is a major catalyst in The Order of the Phoenix‘s tense storyline. Rowling created her as Cho Chang’s best friend, and eventually the one who told Professor Umbridge about Dumbledore’s Army. Marietta was a member of the resistance group, but never seemed comfortable with all the sneaking around. In the movie, Marietta’s act of betrayal is handed to Cho herself.
Marietta was coerced by Umbridge into revealing the location of the Room of Requirement, with the nefarious professor threatening to derail the careers of the Ravenclaw student’s parents if she didn’t share that information. In the movie, Cho was subjected to a truth potion called Veritaserum, which forced her to speak out against her friends and fellow DA members. The change made sense from a logical standpoint, but it did alter Cho’s character. I’d like to see Marietta introduced much earlier in the HBO series as a minor character. That way, she can be called into action by the writers to betray her friends as she did in the books, but it will bring with it a more emotional impact than suddenly appearing out of nowhere to turn the tide.
Sir Patrick Delaney-Podmore
The leader of the Headless Hunt only appears in The Chamber Secrets, and he’s confined to a single scene. But what a scene it is. Sir Patrick and company show up at Nearly Headless Nick’s Deathday Party and cause absolute chaos. I’ve always been disappointed that the sequence was never included in the 2002 movie. HBO has a chance to right that wrong in Season 2, and it can’t be achieved without Sir Patrick and his followers. On a related topic, John Cleese’s partially decapitated character was also robbed of some of his best moments from the books. This includes his heartfelt explanation to Harry about why Sirius can’t return as a ghost. Nick provides a lot of underrated worldbuilding, and I hope HBO sees the merit in keeping him more involved.
Professor Binns
Once a flesh-and-blood Hogwarts Professor, Cuthbert Binns died in his sleep and then just continued with his work as if nothing had happened. His absence from the movies further reflects the adaptation’s attitude toward the story’s ghosts. They add so much to the lore, but rarely have a direct impact on the story being told. In The Chamber of Secrets, the comically boring History of Magic professor becomes a point of interest when the students realize he can tell them about the Chamber that the novel is named after. Those who have only seen the movies will only now be realizing that they have seen this expositional moment, just with Maggie Smith’s McGonigal delivering the informative monologue instead. Justice for Binns – put him on the small screen.
Winky
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was the first book in the series that I picked up and thought, “Gee willikers, that sure is a hefty tome.” It might not have been those exact words, but you get the idea. It had a page count that had visibly increased. As such, it came as no surprise to me when the 2005 adaptation was the first time that Warner Bros. started to get super brutal about what made the cut. I had become accustomed to certain small moments not making it to the big screen, but the absence of Winky the House Elf and all the narrative baggage that came with her left a gaping void.
Winky’s arc is what causes Hermione to create the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare (S.P.E.W.) That entire subplot was torn from the story for the big-screen adaptation, and it brought out a lot of narrative connective tissue with it. Removing the Crouch family’s House-elf resulted in some major rewrites so that the movie could still make sense. The remaining responsibilities that Winky once held were distributed among the remaining characters. I completely understand that the pacing would have suffered in the context of a movie’s runtime if Winky had been included, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. HBO’s Harry Potter series doesn’t need to make the same decision, so Winky can finally make her way to the screen.
- Release Date
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2026 – 2026
- Showrunner
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Francisca Gardiner
- Directors
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Mark Mylod
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