u/Comrade_Owl-

Percy Weasley:
- Approx 6 mins screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 390 times in the books

Dean Thomas:
- Approx 10 mins screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 206 times in the books

Seamus Finnegan:
- Approx 15 mins screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 176 times in the books

Oliver Wood:
- Approx 5 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 117 times in the books

Lee Jordan:
- Approx 2 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 68 times in the books

Colin Creevey:
- Approx 3 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 72 times in the books

Parvati Patil:
- Approx 5 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 118 times in the books

Lavender Brown:
- Approx 8 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 137 times in the books

Angelina Johnson:
- Approx 2 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 122 times in the books

Alicia Spinnet:
- Approx 1 min of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 52 times in the books

Katie Bell:
- Approx 3 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 107 times in the books

Pansy Parkinson:
- Approx 2 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 60 times in the books

Blaise Zabini (although his role was expanded in the last film because he replaced Crabbe tbf):
- Approx 3 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 43 times in the books

Marcus Flint:
- Approx 2 mins of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 12 times in the books

Hannah Abbott:
- Approx 1 min of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 25 times in the books

Susan Bones:
- Approx 1 min of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 11 times in the books

Ernie Macmillan:
- Approx 1 min of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 97 times in the books

Justin Finch-Fletchley:
- Approx 1 min of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 46 times in the books

Penelope Clearwater:
- Approx 10 secs of screen time in the movies
- Mentioned 8 times in the books

Padma Patil:
- Approx 4 mins of screen time
- Mentioned 21 times in the books

EDIT: I’m not saying they should promote any of these characters to main ones but just perhaps expand their roles by giving them a few more scenes and/or lines. There is quite a lot of scope to do this in the first couple of seasons as they have a lot of excess time to fill as these books are short.

Also I’m talking about their roles compared to the movies. All of these characters (except arguably Blaise) had reduced roles in the movies overall.

Genuinely curious as I’m not an expert in this field at all.

I believe Arabella was chosen not because of her looks but because of her talent and it’s a just a bonus that she kinda looks like how myself and many others imagined Hermione from the books.

Links to where I found these great pieces of art can be found in a comment I’ve posted below.

I love that in the books, Sirius genuinely felt bad about Ron not having a pet anymore because of the Scabbers situation so he gave him the tiny owl that delivered his letter and Hogsmeade permission slip to Harry on the Hogwarts Express at the end of PoA.

From the ‘Finding Harry’ documentary, they were clearly going all in on animatronics for the owls, Scabbers etc so this gives me hope that they’ll create one for Pigwidgeon!

We got our second look at Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter (after the official announcement of Season 1 filming with the picture of him in his Hogwarts robes), and our first looks at the Dursleys and Piers Polkiss.

I remember seeing this and was delighted that Petunia and Dudley looked quite book accurate, Dominic was giving Book Harry vibes and that they were including Piers Polkiss this time. Also Dudley and Piers’ attire pretty much confirmed that the show would be taking place in the ‘90s like the books!

Having seen a few posts on here recently which highlighted the attention to detail that the show is giving from the 'Finding Harry' documentary on HBO Max, I decided to rewatch it the other day.

I noticed that in some of the shots of Dominic McLaughlin behind the scenes, hair clips can be seen on the back of his head and product was being used which is surely to make sure that his hair sticks up at the back like it is mentioned a few times in the book, in particular when comparing it to James who had the exact same characteristic.

“He [James] wore glasses, and his hair was very untidy. It stuck up at the back, just like Harry’s did."
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Chapter 12: The Mirror of Erised

“James’s hair stuck up at the back exactly as Harry’s did..."
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter 28: Snape's Worst Memory

“With a leap of pleasure, Harry recognized his father, his untidy black hair stuck up at the back like Harry’s, and he too wore glasses."
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Chapter 10: Kreacher's Tale

This is yet another reason why I have faith in the people making the show to include details from the books that the movies didn't bother with.

I love that the show is really emphasising that it’s primarily set in the ‘90s as that is the canonical timeline from the books and it’s something that will differentiate it from the films to some extent which seemed to be set contemporarily.

From the leaks we got last year, we saw that they’re using props such as this real Nirvana concert poster from 1991 which could be seen outside the Leaky Cauldron when Hagrid and Harry arrive there and this newspaper featuring Princess Diana from the Little Whinging set when they were filming Vernon’s weird day. I also remember seeing football (that’s soccer for any Americans) sticker cards from the ‘90s in the cupboard under the stairs in the teaser.

Personally I love this and hope they continue with it throughout the seasons as little Easter Eggs for eagle-eyed viewers. I thought of an example because the World Cup is on right now. They could reference the 1994 World Cup having just happened before Harry goes off to the Quidditch World Cup at the start of Season 4.

However just to be clear, I don’t think they should go overboard with this and only include a handful of references at most at the start of each season during the Muggle world sequences before obviously focusing on the Wizarding world. I’d love to hear your guys’ thoughts and ideas.

They’ve been really interesting watches. Don’t get me wrong Steve Kloves is NOT exonerated from any blame when it comes to the criticisms of the films but it just made me think that maybe people, including myself, have been too harsh on him. There are so many other factors that lead to what we saw in the movies such as actor’s interpretation, improvisation and of course the director’s input.

There’s no doubt that he still elevated Hermione’s importance at the expense of Ron and invented some contradictory and dumb scenes. However, he did try to include many things from the books or original scenes that were pretty good which ended up getting cut or changed.

The best examples of these from the PoA video in my opinion were Lupin’s line explaining to Harry that James could turn into a Stag and Ron’s heroic sacrifice when being dragged under the Whomping Willow by Sirius. Also he added more scenes that hinted towards Ron and Hermione’s romance that were cut and he was not responsible for Harry and Hermione holding hands and getting touchy.

Yes of course he is partly to blame for the problems of the movies, but I feel like the fandom sometimes single him out when it really falls on multiple people. The exception would be that many people blame Dumbledore’s demeanour in the GoF movie on director Mike Newell. In fact, I think a lot of the bad things about GoF falls on Mike Newell plus I don’t envy the job Steve Kloves had to cut down such a long book into 2.5 hours.

Anyway just a thought as one of the main reasons I’m in favour of the show is to correct the mistakes and shortcomings of the films which, I’ll be totally honest, I’ve put a lot of the blame on Steve Kloves for.

I thought I recognized Peter Serafinowicz from somewhere. I eventually remembered him from Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick 2 as well. Also, it turns out he provided the voice for Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. I’m so excited to see him as Peeves in the show!

I was going through which actors have been confirmed to be playing Hogwarts teachers and I noticed that they haven’t announced an actress for the Astronomy professor Aurora Sinistra. I know her role is very small in the books but I thought this was strange as every other teacher of Harry’s first year subjects have been announced. Also they revealed other Hogwarts staff such as Filch, Madam Hooch and Madam Pomfrey.

She very briefly appeared in the movies but had no lines and no Astronomy classes were shown. However, hopefully she will be included in the show as Harry does attend Astronomy classes on Wednesdays at midnight in the first book. Perhaps they for some reason just didn’t include her in the casting announcements due to her role being minor? With that being said, they did announce Griphook who has a very small role in the first book.

I totally understand not casting Trelawney or the Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Muggle Studies professors yet as those subjects aren’t relevant until the third book.

EDIT: I’ve been informed that they have cast Septima Vector the Arithmancy professor which surely means that they’ve cast Sinistra.

They will most likely do this in early December but I think they should reveal a full 1-2 minute clip from one of these scenes:

- Vernon’s weird day
- Harry at muggle school
- Peeves’ introduction
- Professor Binns teaching History of Magic
- Draco challenging Harry to a duel
- Quidditch match vs Hufflepuff

This counters the “What’s the point of this? We’ve seen it before” argument some people make and highlights that the show will be distinct from the movies which would be a good marketing strategy in my opinion.