More changes are confirmed for HBO’s Harry Potter TV show, and it’s a good sign for the remake. The series is already deviating away from both the Harry Potter books and movies in myriad ways. There’s the addition of Nicolas Flamel and his wife, Perenelle; we’re seemingly going to fully see the night Lord Voldemort attacked the Potters; and there’ll be more of the wizarding world’s celebrations of the Dark Lord’s downfall. And along with all of those will be some changes to the Hogwarts Professors and the Malfoys.
For the former, it’d already been announced that Professor Binns (Richard Durden) will be part of the show, after the films cut the History of Magic lessons. And for the latter, Lucius Malfoy is expected to appear in Season 1 (played by Johnny Flynn), despite orginally not being introduced until The Chamber of Secrets. Now we’re learning more about both, and it explains why Lucius is appearing early. Speaking with 1883 Magazine, new Draco Malfoy actor Lox Pratt revealed that scenes were being filmed at Malfoy Manor, as well as inside the lives of the professors. Check out his full quote below:
“I think with this adaptation, you get to see so much more than the books. [The books] are very much over Harry’s shoulder, which is great, and that’s how they played the film as well. And I think Francesca [Gardiner] and Mark [Mylod] have been audible about this in their interviews, there’s just so much more that you get to see. You get to see all the teachers in their little rooms. You get to see Draco at home. I won’t spoil too much about that, but there are some brilliant scenes at home where you start to get an insight into how he is.”
These Changes Are Good For The Harry Potter Remake
Image via WB
Any adaptation changing the source material can be a contentious matter, and it is fair to expect a certain amount of fidelity to the novels in the Harry Potter remake. At the same time, it also needs to be able to put its own spin on things: it has to stand apart from both the books and the movies, and it cannot accomplish that if it’s simply repeating exactly what we’ve seen before.
This is also a great chance for expansion. The TV format means a much longer runtime than a two-hour movie, and that can not only mean including scenes from the books that were cut, but adding more depth to other characters and fleshing out more storylines. This will be particularly important in the first couple of seasons, where the books are much shorter: to fill eight hour-long episodes, it makes sense there’d have to be some invention.
The choice to add new scenes in for the Hogwarts professors and the Malfoys could both be great. In terms of the teachers, we don’t get much of an opportunity to know them outside of the classroom, and I’ve long wondered about their exact living arrangements. We know they stay at Hogwarts, but where exactly do they sleep? What do they do outside of teaching hours? It’s a good chance to dive deeper into Hogwarts itself, and reveal some secrets of the castle we haven’t seen before.
Similar is true of the Malfoys. Draco is a fun but fairly one-dimensional villain at first, though he becomes more complex later on – and a large part of that is because of his family. Seeing some of that from the beginning can make him a more rounded character from the start, potentially giving his arc greater tragedy as it progresses. These choices can really allow the TV show to be its own thing, while staying very true to the spirit of the books, which is as it should be.
The Harry Potter remake is expected to debut on HBO and HBO Max in 2027.
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