The Harry Potter movies may have been the first to introduce J.K. Rowling’s books to mainstream audiences. Still, the HBO Max TV series aims to provide a “faithful” adaptation to a new generation of fans with deeper character arcs and a pacing more loyal to the original material. Surprising on-set photos of the upcoming show seemingly reveal one character that was never in the movies, and now I’m more intrigued.
One thing I’m really looking forward to with the Harry Potter HBO Original series is bringing to life the book scenes that didn’t make it into the movies. Based on @WW_Direct’s X post, it looks like one of those missing moments could be part of the TV series that may involve Nicolas Flamel, his wife, and Dumbledore.
Based on the on-set images, we seemingly have renowned alchemist, Nicolas Flamel, conversing with Albus Dumbledore. The next two images also show us possible glimpses of Flamel’s wife, Perenelle. This exciting moment that readers and film fans have only imagined may finally be told on the small screen.
If you remember in the books/movies, Nicolas Flamel created the Sorcerer’s Stone, with its uses being to transform any metal into gold and produce the Elixir of Life to make you immortal. Flamel and his wife drank the Elixir, which made them centuries old, but destroyed the stone after Voldemort tried to get his hands on it.
While Nicolas Flamel wasn’t an on-screen character in the movies, he also didn’t have book scenes and was only referenced by name. The only time the Harry Potter film franchise had the 665-year-old alchemist appear was when he was added to Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, played by Mexican-French actor Brontis Jodorowsky. According to what’s shown from these BTS images, it looks like the TV series will present a flashback sequence of Flamel's backstory and his friendship with Dumbledore.
While the Harry Potter movies portrayed the boy wizard’s story in the course of eight movies, there were still so many characters that didn’t make it in the final cut, as well as significant events that were either condensed or left out entirely. It’s understandable, as the average runtime of each movie was over two hours. But it’s still not enough time to cover everything as J.K. Rowling’s books were over 300 pages each.
As the TV series producer, David Heyman, teased that the book-to-TV adaptation would be more accurate to the source material, this is an opportunity for HBO Max to dig deeper into the best-selling books and explore beloved characters and events that the films didn’t have the runtime to cover. Sure, the HBO Max series will connect to the movies being filmed in the same location, but it will seemingly take its own liberties to expand backstories and add new scenes to detail parts of the story the films and books never showed.
With the apparent addition of Nicolas Flamel and his wife seemingly making their way into the Harry Potter TV series, this is a good sign that the new show will stand out by exploring untold stories that fans have only pictured while watching the movies or reading the books. The familiar story of The Boy Who Lived will apparently not simply be a retelling, but new layers of The Wizarding World and its magical characters will come into light for a new generation of fans.
The Harry Potter TV series is expected to come to your HBO Max subscription in 2027. Until then, you can find the movies that started it all on the same streamer as well as your Peacock subscription.
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