What Needs to Happen in the Harry Potter Max Series

Courtesy of HBO

Casting for the upcoming Harry Potter series on Max is currently happening, aiming for a 2026 release. Harry Potter is one of my favorite franchises. I grew up watching the movies, remembering the first time I saw Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as a young kid in theaters. I remember reading the books for the first time after watching the first four movies. From the characters, to score, magic, and other things, this franchise means so much to me. I love the films so for me, the upcoming Harry Potter series has a lot to live up to. At the same time, I love the books these movies are based on. Many things I enjoyed in the books were either not adapted to the big screen or didn’t land the way I wanted. Here are some things I want to see done in the upcoming Harry Potter series.

A Proper Adaptation of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

This might be weird to have as my top priority since Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is the sixth Harry Potter book and it will be a while until we get there with the upcoming series, but this is my favorite book in the series, and is the most important thing for them to get right in my opinion. The film adaptation on the other hand is my least favorite out of the 8 main Harry Potter films. The film’s lack of focus on the Half-Blood Prince book, Dumbledore showing memories of Voldemort and cutting out the battle of the Astronomy Tower and Dumbledore’s funeral disappointed me. The movie also did a poor job of setting up and handling the romance between Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley, which came across as too awkward in the film, whereas the book had a great build-up to when they finally got together. Also, the film didn’t show Professor Snape finally teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, only mentioning that he teaches it. One of the key aspects of Snape’s character arc is he wants to teach the subject, only to get passed for the job each year. Once the show reaches this book, it needs to do a better job handling all the things the film failed to do.

Better Job Handling Characters

What I love about the Harry Potter series is the variety of characters beyond Harry, Ron, and Hermione. There are so many unique characters, whether they are funny, good, serious, or evil. The films either lessened the roles of characters, waited to introduce them in later movies, or completely cut out certain characters. In the book version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sirius Black had a bigger role than his small appearance in the Gryffindor Common Room fireplace in the film. This book also introduced Bill and Charlie Weasley, Ron’s two oldest brothers who were mentioned many times in the first three books. In the movies, Bill wasn’t introduced until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and Charlie never appeared. Characters from the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire book like Ludo Bagman, Winky the house-elf, and Bertha Jorkins who were all significant to the plot never appeared in the film adaptation. They were never even mentioned in the film. Hopefully, the Max series fixes this mistake and has these characters, as well as others who suffered similar issues in the films, get more time to shine and develop.

Fix Ron Weasley

Ron Weasley is Harry Potter’s best friend who is funny, loyal and knows a lot about the wizarding world, helping Harry and even Hermione understand it better from a social point of view. If you only saw the movies but never read the books, you would think Ron was just a comic relief who was best friends with Harry. The books show Ron in a way more favorable light, standing up for his friends more. When making the films, a lot of his finest moments in the books were given to Hermione. For example, in the book version of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ron explains to Harry and Hermione what a Mudblood is. Hermione didn’t even know what the term was. In the film adaptation, Hermione already knows what it means and explains it herself. In the book version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, despite having an injured leg in the Shrieking Shack, Ron still tries to stand up and protect Harry from Sirius Black, saying Sirius would have to also kill him and Hermione. In the film adaptation, it’s Hermione who says that line. A lot of these changes were made by Steve Kloves, the writer of the films, who is known for favoring Hermione over other characters. Hopefully the writers of the show don’t let their bias for certain characters show when writing this show.

Exploring the Backstory of the Marauders and Snape

While Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is one of my favorite Harry Potter films, there were a few missed opportunities to explore the history of the Marauders and their history with Professor Snape. The book goes into more detail, revealing Sirius, Professor Lupin, Harry’s dad James, and Peter Pettigrew created the Marauder’s Map, that Sirius, Pettigrew, and James became Animagus to help Lupin while he’s in his werewolf form, and that cruel prank Sirius pulled on Snape when they were students in Hogwarts. The later books do this well too, where the films barely brought it up. Part of Snape’s arc is his hatred for Harry’s dad, and the chapter from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix called ‘Snape’s Worst Memory’ is a key chapter in the entire series involving this rivalry, showing James and the Marauders in a bad light going after Snape back in school. Harry was so disappointed in his dad that he reached out to Lupin and Sirius to ask about his dad. Sirius and Lupin assured Harry that James grew out of his bullying ways as he got older. Hopefully the show explores the backstory of the Marauders and gives more development to Lupin and Sirius.

Visiting Other Story Arcs

The seven Harry Potter novels have so many fun and interesting arcs going on that never made the films. The book version of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban had a great Quidditch arc of Harry and the Gryffindor Quidditch team finally winning the Quidditch Cup after missing out on it the previous two years. The book version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix had another great Quidditch arc where Ron joins the team as Keeper and struggles until the last game where he helps win the Cup, Harry, Fred, and George get banned from Quidditch by Umbridge, and Ginny joining the team as Seeker after Harry is banned from the game. In the books, Harry’s ambition to become an Auror began in the book version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire after Barty Crouch Jr. pretending to be Professor Moody suggested it to him, and in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, he shared his career ambition with Professor McGongall, who told Harry she would do everything she can to help him reach that goal after Umbridge said Harry had no chance of being an Auror where in the movies it wasn’t mentioned until Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The show has time to explore these arcs.

Overall, the upcoming show has a good chance of exploring many of these ideas, and I hope it does. What do you want to see in the upcoming Harry Potter Max show? Let us know in the comments below.