10 Things Left Out Of The Harry Potter Movies That Need To Be Included In The New Series

One of the most exciting aspects of reading the Harry Potter books is getting to the chapter that was dedicated in detail to Quidditch. It felt as though the reader were being pulled into the stands and watching witches and wizards zoom by in real life as they tossed quaffles and smacked bludgers that whizzed dangerously close by your face while Harry searched desperately for the snitch. But the movies barely gave Quidditch any screen time at all.

To be fair, the games don’t move the plot of the movie forward at all, and when dealing with a feature-length running time, the film creators had to get to the important stuff quickly, which obviously meant cutting into the Quidditch matches screen time. But, with the point of the reboot being to make a series that will dive into all the details the movies missed, including more Quidditch matches should definitely be at the top of the showrunner’s priority list.

Aside from Dobby and Kreacher, the Harry Potter movies don’t really get into the importance of house elves in wizarding society, and the movies barely even showcase those two. Dobby is an essential character who appears in five of the books, but he’s only in two movies. His death scene at the end of Deathly Hallows Part 1 is barely heartbreaking at all for those who didn’t read the books, but if it is done right, it should completely destroy the audience. 

Additionally, Winky the house elf is never mentioned despite playing an important role in Goblet of Fire and fighting alongside Kreacher and the other house elves in the Battle of Hogwarts (more on that later). The house elves are powerful, nuanced magical creatures with incredible powers that are never really addressed in the movies and they absolutely deserve to be explored further in the upcoming Harry Potter reboot.

Not only is Hermione the brightest witch in her class, but she’s also one of the most compassionate. In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, she begins her activism journey by starting the Society for the Promotion of Elvish Welfare (aka S.P.E.W.) after learning that it’s thanks to house elves that Hogwarts is kept warm, clean, and filled with plenty of food. Although she has a hard time getting others on board with her outreach, she doesn’t give up, which not only shows a lot about Hermione’s character but also tells a lot about the acquiescence of wizarding society.

The Dursleys were awful, abusive people who never should have been allowed to keep guardianship over Harry Potter (even if it kept him safe from Voldemort), but, the final moment near the end of the series when they say goodbye to Harry should have been included in the movies. In fact, this moment (or at least something similar to it) was filmed, but it ended up becoming a deleted scene. In the book’s final goodbye, we see a small bit of sentiment from Petunia as she looks as though she wants to say something to Harry, though she thinks better of it, meanwhile, Dudley exhausts his entire ability to compute emotions by thanking Harry for saving his life during Order of the Phoenix.

The Battle of Hogwarts is the epic ending to a decade-long film franchise, and it barely holds a candle to the battle we read in the books. While we see Harry Potter and Voldemort duke it out in the movies, there are so many other elements that happen in the books that never made it to the screen. For instance, it wasn’t just the students, the Order, and the Death Eaters fighting on the school grounds, Kreacher and Winky led a battalion of house elves who used cutlery as their weapons against the attackers, meanwhile, Ron’s brother Charlie flew in with an army of dragons, and even Neville’s grandmother showed up to fight, showcasing a small moment where she is proud Neville is her grandson after she learns he is fighting as well. 

The Marauders (James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew) are an integral part of Harry Potter’s story, and they barely get any screen time, despite having iconic actors like Gary Oldman and David Thewlis plays them in the movies. While we fully believe that the Marauders deserve to have their own movie, at the very least the reboot series needs to dive deeper into the relationships they cultivate with Harry. Sirius and Harry have many moments throughout the book that shows the deep and caring father-son relationship they develop over the two years that they know each other before Sirius is taken out by Bellatrix, and Harry becomes so close with Lupin that Lupin and Tonks named Harry the godfather of their son Teddy.

Peeves the Poltergeist is nothing short of iconic, and it is straight-up blasphemy that he was removed from the movies. Peeves is Hogwarts’ resident mischief maker (besides the Weasley twins, of course), and he appeared in every single novel and was even played by English actor Rik Mayall for the first film, though all of his scenes got cut. Not only does Peeves add a bit of humor and color to the Harry Potter universe, but he is also an important character (who also participated in the Battle of Hogwarts, fighting alongside Harry and the Order). It was a disservice to cut Peeves from the movies, and now Warner Bros. Discovery has a second chance to make sure that this poltergeist is a prominent presence in the reboot.

Albus Dumbledore is a strange and complicated character who wears the facade of being a “brilliant, but mad” wizard, though on the inside, he is captivated by the darkness of his past. Throughout most of the books, Dumbledore remains a mystery, and it isn’t until after he dies and Harry begins to learn more about his cherished mentor that his backstory begins to unfold. Although the books don’t go into deep detail about Dumbledore’s past and his relationship with Grindelwald, it could be fascinating to explore this further in the Harry Potter reboot. 

The Ronald Weasley in the books and movies are two completely different people, and that’s a gap that needs to be closed in the new Harry Potter reboot. In the books, each member of the Golden Trio has a part to play and is essential to Harry winning the war against Voldemort. Harry is the leader and the muscle of the group, Hermione is the brains, and Ron is the heart and common sense. 

Book Hermione may be the smartest of the lot, but when placed under pressure, she completely crumbles. That’s where Ron comes in. In the books, Ron is able to keep a cool head under pressure and help guide Hermione to solutions even while she’s panicking, but in the movies, all of his good lines were given to Emma Watson while Rupert Grint’s role was reduced to nothing but comic relief.

Ron is an extremely well fleshed out character who is both brave and insecure, who has a strong head on his shoulders, and who is essential to the trio and Harry’s eventual success. Hermione is brilliant, but she isn’t the perfect heroine portrayed in the movies, she has flaws, too. It’s important that the reboot sees the significance of both characters to do the entire trio justice in the series.

No other character received a glow-up throughout the Harry Potter books like Neville Longbottom did. He went from being a shy student with no remarkable talents and who forgot everything to a brave leader who was integral to winning the wizarding war. And we barely got to learn any of his backstory in the movies. 

Just one of the things that the movies left out about Neville is the fact that Neville could have been the chosen one. It was up to Voldemort to choose who the prophecy was about, and he chose Harry, but it could have just as easily been Neville. Additionally, Neville grew up to show the same amount of bravery that Harry did and exhibited that he would have been an excellent chosen one. 

Despite having a terrible childhood, growing up with his parents permanently hospitalized in St. Mungo’s, and dealing with years of bullying from his family and other students at Hogwarts, Neville became the leader of Dumbledore’s Army in his last year, single-handedly led the student rebellion against the Death Eater occupied school, and endured numerous tortures from Voldemort and the Crowleys before finally taking out Nagini, thus allowing Harry to be able to defeat Voldemort once and for all. Neville is one of the most important characters in the Harry Potter saga, and he deserves to shine in the new series.