3 Underrated Harry Potter Characters the HBO Reboot Can Finally Elevate

HBO is swinging big with its Harry Potter series. The plan is not another quick trip to Hogwarts but a decade-long run, one season per book, with enough room to actually live with these characters. If that sounds like an attempt to outdo Warner Bros. ' 2001-launched film run, that is exactly the energy here.

Succession Emmy-winner Francesca Gardiner is running the show, and Mark Mylod (also a veteran of Succession and Game of Thrones ) is co-steering the creative. The cast is already stacked in intriguing ways: John Lithgow is playing Dumbledore, Paapa Essiedu is Severus Snape, and Janet McTeer is Professor McGonagall. Season 1 alone is set for eight episodes, which finally gives this world the kind of breathing room the movies never had.

And look, the films were a monster success: eight movies, over $7.7 billion worldwide, one of the all-time box office runs. But those two-hour caps forced a lot of triage. Plot took the wheel. Side characters got flattened, or their arcs got trimmed to the bone. A season-per-book format can actually restore what was shaved off. Here are three characters I am expecting this HBO version to finally do right.

1. Fleur Delacour

   On film, Clémence Poésy shows up in Goblet of Fire as the Beauxbatons champion, floats through on cool French vibes, and then more or less vanishes after two appearances. The missing piece is in Half-Blood Prince, where the books give her a crucial moment after Fenrir Greyback mauls Bill Weasley during the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. Fleur stands toe-to-toe with Molly Weasley and makes it crystal clear that Bill's scars change nothing about her commitment to him, which is the scene that flips Molly from skeptic to genuine future mother- in-law.

   'Bill's scars make no difference to me.'

   The movie cuts that entire beat and jump-cuts straight to their wedding, which robs Fleur of the depth that earns her acceptance. With multiple seasons to play with, the series can build the clear-eyed, steel-spined Fleur Rowling actually wrote instead of keeping her as a pretty background flourish.

2. Cho Chang

   In the films, Katie Leung's Cho is framed as the grieving ex who shows up, stirs feelings, and exits. The books give her more shading, but the movie version of Order of the Phoenix makes a particularly baffling change. On the page, Dumbledore's Army is exposed to Dolores Umbridge by Cho's friend Marietta Edgecombe, who caves under family pressure. The film pins the betrayal on Cho herself, which turns a character processing Cedric Diggory's death into the person who hands Harry's secret group to its tormentor. That rewrite strips away the integrity that defines her in the novels, and the films never circle back to clear her name.

   The HBO series can put Marietta back where she belongs in that plot, let Cho actually have the grief arc Rowling intended, and give her screen time that matches her importance. Honestly, long overdue.

3. Percy Weasley

   Chris Rankin's Percy pops up early in the films as a pompous prefect, disappears, and then reappears in Deathly Hallows: Part 2 to crack a quick joke before the big fight. What's missing is a major throughline from the books: as Voldemort resurges, Percy sides with the Ministry of Magic, publicly dismisses his father's warnings, cuts off his siblings, and breaks his mother's heart. That fracture lasts across four books before he returns to the family during the Battle of Hogwarts, a reconciliation that lands because it took years to earn.

   That storyline gives the Weasleys a domestic conflict that mirrors the series' larger idea about how institutions can lead decent people astray and even split families along ideological lines. The show can restore Percy as a cautionary tale with real consequences for characters we love, not just a punchline after a long absence.

This adaptation is built to be patient in a way the movies never could be. With Gardiner and Mylod at the helm and a 10-year runway, there is finally time to let these arcs breathe. Which overlooked character are you hoping the series finally gets right?