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7 Harry Potter Changes From the Books the HBO Reboot Must Make
There is a lot of excitement for the upcoming Harry Potter HBO reboot because the long-form series can show a lot more that happened in the books that the movies had to mostly ignore. The movies also made some changes to the source material along the way. The eight films told J.K. Rowling’s story faithfully, while also quietly rewriting it from the inside out. The movies also stripped out political complexity, character nuance, and several subplots. With one season per book, the HBO series can fix several problems, from Hermione basically being an exposition machine to the sanitization of Dumbledore, and the reduction of the Ministry of Magic to a backdrop.
The early news from the HBO Harry Potter reboot indicates it is sticking closer to the source material, even with some alterations to casting. With things like the rumored addition of Peeves, it seems committed to the source material. The story from this series, which premieres in December 2026, will define it for an entire generation.
7) Show the Full First Wizarding War in Flashback
The First Wizarding War stretched on from 1970 to 1981, and it created a reign of terror that involved stealth attacks, espionage, torture, and the mass killings of everyone from witches and wizards to Muggles. The Death Eaters drastically outnumbered the Order of the Phoenix, and this was a war that showed how deadly things could become if Voldemort gets his way. The closest the movies came to showing any of this was in the sequence in Goblet of Fire during Barty Crouch Jr.’s Pensieve sequence.
However, it didn’t even come close to the showing destruction of the war and only focused on Karkaroff naming Death Eaters. The Marauders were part of that war, and they watched their friends die, and showing some of this could allow more flashbacks for fans to get to know James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. Allowing flashbacks across the seasons could really show why it is so important to stop Voldemort before it’s too late.
6) Make the Horcrux Hunt Feel Psychologically Deadly
The Horcrux locket in the books was a slow-acting, psychological weapon that focused on each characters’ insecurities. It showed Ron’s inferiority complex, Harry’s paranoia, and Hermione’s despair. The movies showed this clearly through the kids’ actions and the near fracture of their friendship. However, they only showed these fears and conflict through a series of scenes and then moved on.
The Harry Potter HBO reboot needs to take time in showing this play out. In the books, it took Ron months of psychological torture to break him down, and it wasn’t a single argument like in the movies. The Horcrux in the book was more psychologically damaging than the movies showed, and a lot harder for the kids to overcome. This series needs to make it horrific, and the psychological effects of the Horcruxes need to be shown in their true power.
5) Give Neville Longbottom His Proper Arc
Anyone who read the Harry Potter books knows that readers began to suspect that Neville Longbottom was the real Chosen One and not Harry Potter. He was a legitimate red herring, and that made him one of the most interesting side characters in the novels. The movies never hinted at this in the storyline, and while Neville got his moment when he faced Voldemort in the last movie, it seemed undeserved.
The Harry Potter HBO reboot needs to fix that. Harry and Neville both fit the description of the Chosen One and the reason that Voldemort targeted Harry was that he believed Harry was special and Neville wasn’t, which would have made this a perfect twist. The HBO series has to add the scene where Neville visits his parents, who had been institutionalized for 14 years as permanently insane. Neville also rebuilt Dumbledore’s Army, and he needs to play a much bigger role in the HBO series, including the moment where he kills Nagini during the Battle of Hogwarts.
4) Restore the Ministry of Magic as a Functioning Antagonist
In the Harry Potter novel, Order of the Phoenix, The Ministry of Magic ran a massive months-long smear campaign against Dumbledore and a child, in Harry Potter. This was backed up by the Daily Prophet, which was only slightly touched on in the movies. The movies only showed this in a few condensed shots and never in the full force that the books showed it.
The movies also eliminated almost all of Percy Weasley’s storyline, which was part of the films elimination of the political allegories from the books. Percy aligned with the Ministry against his family’s views and was used by the Ministry, which made his redemption when he joined returned to his family during the Battle of Hogwarts so special. This should also show why Dolores Umbridge was allowed so much power. The Ministry’s fall in Deathly Hallows will mean more if they are shown at their full strength on HBO.
3) Restore the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw Characters
The movies only cared about two of the Hogwarts houses. It was either Gryffindor and Slytherin that was focused on thanks to Harry Potter and his friends and Draco Malfoy. This was especially noticeable in the movies when there wasn’t a Dumbledore’s Army member from Hufflepuff by name, despite the book having names like Susan Bones, Zacharias Smith, and more.
Also, losing Ernie Macmillan’s arc of claiming Harry Potter was the heir of Slytherin in Chamber of Secrets took away his great redemption when he publicly defended him in Half-Blood Prince, telling the kids they were fools if they didn’t trust him. Luna Lovegood is the only Ravenclaw to get development on screen from the books, and even she has a richer storyline in the books. Cedric Diggory is the only Hufflepuff with big screen time, and he died.
2) Let Dumbledore Be Morally Complicated From the Start
Dumbledore got more attention in the Fantastic Beasts movies. When he was only 17, Dumbledore and Grindelwald wrote a philosophical ideology called For the Greater Good, which called for wizards to have supremacy over Muggles. It wasn’t until Grindelwald executed a reign of terror that lasted for years that Dumbledore came around. Dumbledore was a true believer in those terrible ideas for a long time.
The movies really softened up Dumbledore in the Harry Potter world, which was disappointing because he was really manipulating Harry for his entire life. He deliberately withheld information from Harry for years and trained him to ensure that Harry would die if need be. Snape even said Dumbledore raised Harry to be a “pig for slaughter,” and HBO needs to plant the seeds and show these contradictions to make Dumbledore more complicated than he was in the films.
1) Give Hermione More Than Exposition
Interestingly, the Harry Potter movies took a lot of Ron Weasley’s book dialogue and gave it to Hermione to deliver. When Hermione yelled “If you want to kill Harry, you’ll have to kill us too,” which was Ron’s line in the books. In a moment of panic, Ron even yells at Hermione about escaping the Devil’s Snare by asking, “Are you a witch or not?” In the book, Hermione makes mistakes. In the movies, Hermione is never wrong.
This needs to change in the series to give Hermione more agency in becoming a stronger witch. Making her perfect at everything makes her nothing but a source of exposition, and it doesn’t allow her character to grow and develop. There was also the SPEW storyline, where she stood up to help free the House Elves, and that storyline was also removed from the movies. The Harry Potter HBO reboot needs to give the new Hermione her flaws back to make her a stronger part of the lead trio.
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