HBO’s Harry Potter Series Needs To Give The Slytherins More Attention

HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter television series is gaining attention even though there is no confirmed cast or release date for the first season. The show is set to give each novel one season, and fans are speculating about how HBO might use the extra time in comparison to the movies.

Harry Potter has no shortage of characters or plots that can be given more attention and focus, and HBO could provide exactly that. However, it doesn’t just need to be Harry and the other Gryffindors that command all the attention as they did in the movies, as there is a chance for the Slytherin house to have more focus this time around.

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Why The Slytherin House Needs More Attention

In the Harry Potter movies, all four Hogwarts houses are established, but outside of rare characters like Luna Lovegood or Cedric Diggory, they’re not explored in the same level of detail as the Gryffindor house. That will be the case again in HBO’s adaptation because the Gryffindor house features most of the lead characters, but that doesn’t mean the rest cannot be explored to provide more details and expand the world of Hogwarts.

The Slytherin house boasts plenty of essential characters and is also the house of Tom Riddle, who went on to become Lord Voldemort. His backstory is sometimes touched on throughout the movies, but his time in school is only briefly shown, which should change. It would provide more detail and attention to the main villain, his backstory, and how he became the person that he is. All the while, it showcases many of the students to give viewers the chance to experience Hogwarts in a more well-rounded manner.

How It Would Benefit The Series

A significant reason that giving Slytherins more attention would benefit HBO’s TV show is that it would guarantee a difference from the movies. That’s something that everyone is searching for; if the TV series ends up being too similar, people will turn it off, as there’s no interest in seeing what are considered excellent films re-told in the same way via a television format. Instead, HBO has to find ways of sprinkling in new details or touching on characters that the movies did not. HBO will have the benefit of time compared to the movies, which must be used well and not just dedicated to stretching out the moments everyone is already familiar with.

The Slytherin house are typically seen as the villains within Hogwarts, and while not every character within it is bad, it’s just as important to give them focus in order to pull the necessary emotions from audiences when they do something to one of the heroes. There are many characters in the Slytherin house that JK Rowling wrote exciting stories about, plus Draco Malfoy is one of the leading characters in the entire franchise. In the movies, he was given surface-level attention enough to establish himself as a bully, and Harry’s main rival, but the movies didn’t dive deeper into his own time at school. HBO can focus on how jealous he is of Harry, the way he manipulates those around him to showcase his evil side more, but ultimately to also show his softness and vulnerability, which is just as important considering what happens to his character throughout the story. This, in particular, would benefit the series because audiences know him well, but there’s a lot of untapped potential.

The Harry Potter series could also tap into a storyline about Hermione Granger that isn’t shown in much detail in the movies, which is her rivalry with Pansy Parkinson. She’s essentially the Draco to her as she bullies and torments Hermione throughout the series, which would showcase Hermione in a different way, which would be important.

Which Characters Should Get More Screen Time?

Draco is the most obvious choice for HBO to focus on within the television series as there is so much to tap into with him, and his closest friends could be part of that. Showcasing more examples of bullying would help to enhance Draco’s feud against Harry, which will mean that their more serious scenes later in the series will pack a lot of punch as the emotions between the characters will be at a boiling point.

Severus Snape is the head of that house, and considering the nature of his character, he could also be shown more.

Seeing him interact with Slytherins and push certain agendas could be an interesting angle while he secretly works for Albus Dumbledore to help defeat Lord Voldemort. Tom Riddle is another character that should be shown much more in the series to provide a greater backstory on one of the most powerful wizards in the show. In addition, Blaise Zabini, the Bloody Baron, and even Hogwarts founder Salazar Slytherin could all be given some screen time to enhance the world of Harry Potter. This would also help prove why Slytherin is seen as an equally powerful house and highlight the differences in each one’s characteristics, which would make the Sorting Hat ceremony have more meaning.

Overall, giving the Slytherin house more screen time in the Harry Potter television series will help the audiences connect to the characters involved, enhancing the entire plot. Seeing the good and evil sides of Hogwarts, the competitive nature between the houses, and how life at the school can drastically differ will allow people to understand why certain characters wind up the way they are. Ultimately, it will make HBO’s version of this story more detailed and help the school feel more lived in, which the show needs to make happen.

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