Harry Potter is back! Well, sort of. Get ready to binge the film series again, because there’s a new Harry Potter trivia game show hosted by the great Helen Mirren called Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses coming to TBS and Cartoon Network. Not only is more Harry Potter content amazing (even if it’s in the form of a trivia game show), but there are some pretty sweet celebrity guests. The upcoming Harry Potter game show was able to land guests like Tom Felton and Pete Davidson, who is apparently a superfan, and now we know just how the project pulled it off.
The 20th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone’s release is coming up, which marks the first moments we saw Harry Potter come alive on screen. It’s a big deal to fans, so it only makes sense that a trivia game show based around the franchise would be gifted to us around the same time, along with a pretty sweet reunion.
And the Harry Potter reunion isn’t the only thing that Harry Potter veterans like Tom Felton and Matthew Lewis, who respectively played Draco Malfoy and Neville Longbottom in the films, will be showing up for, because they are definitely involved in Hogwarts Tournament of Houses. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, show producer Yasmin Shackleton explained just how they got past cast members on board with the trivia game show, saying:
In terms of our special guests — what we call alumni, so people that were obviously in the movies that we had as part of the show — we wanted alumni on the show in some capacity and they were actually involved and asked questions. We spoke to people who know much more than us about who the fans love and who the fans really would like to see on the show. We went out to the bigger and beloved names, like the Tom Felton’s and Shirley Henderson’s and Matthew Lewis’. We were very lucky that we could get those names involved.
Apparently the cast of the new trivia show doesn’t just focus on franchise alumni, though, and also has brought some seriously famous Harry Potter superfans aboard too, including SNL cast member Pete Davidson. In the same interview, Yasmin Shackleton explained the thought process behind nabbing Davidson for the show, citing his many tattoos - some of which are surprisingly dedicated to Harry Potter. Here’s what Shackleton said:
Then kind of digging into that world more, it’s kind of remarkable and a testament to how the franchise is adored. We have Pete Davidson on — and he has multiple Harry Potter tattoos. And, I don’t know, when you think of Pete Davidson, the first thing out of 100 things that pops into my head would not be, ‘I wonder if one of those tattoos is a Harry Potter tattoo.’ There were celebrities who just have such passion or wanted to be part of the show. We could have booked 100 of them. But we were very specific about who we should go out to, and it was obviously people who had a real connection. And it was just lovely to see. It goes from Pete Davidson to Jay Leno. You probably can’t get two more different people.
Having not only one, but multiple tattoos on your body forever dedicated to a fandom is pretty badass honestly, and takes some major dedication. Personally, I’m hoping Pete Davidson and Tom Felton show up in the same episode and are about to fanboy out about Harry Potter together, because I’d love to see which one knows more about Harry Potter: the superfan with the tattoos or the superfan who was actually in the movies.
Hogwarts Tournament of Houses premieres in just a couple days on November 28, with Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff being the first episode. You can watch each of the four episodes as they premiere on either TBS or Cartoon Network at 8 p.m. As for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary Reunion, you’ll have to wait until January to tune in.
