Hogwarts Legacy rides the finest line imaginable when it comes to nostalgia and authenticity in its action-RPG storytelling. On the one hand, Hogwarts Legacy is a Hogwarts student simulator where players attend classes, roam the Scottish Highlands, and explore Hogsmeade to their hearts’ content—albeit in a late-1800s-era atmosphere and aesthetic. On the other hand, Hogwarts Legacy tells a story with so much originality that it seems like it could’ve been plucked and placed into any other whimsical, magical fantasy tale. Thus, it is this marriage that casts Revelio and unveils the potential the franchise has in future entries.
It is unknown whether a follow-up to Hogwarts Legacy would be a direct sequel taking place in the late 1800s or a sequel/successor that decides to apparate elsewhere along the timeline. Of course, with Harry Potter’s upcoming HBO adaptation in the works, it would make a lot of sense if future wizarding world games were to hop on that bandwagon and adapt its stories. Part of what made Hogwarts Legacy so brilliant, though, was its conscious withdrawal from The Boy Who Lived. As a compromise, perhaps Hogwarts Legacy’s sequel could be the foundation from which the HBO show springs forth and behave as a loose prequel to it.
Related
Hogwarts Legacy 2 Can Have Its Pumpkin Pasties and Eat Them Too
Hogwarts Legacy’s sequel would have to craft another inventive loophole to justify a Sorting Ceremony and should therefore resist that instinct.
Hogwarts Legacy’s ‘Legacy’ May Be to End Up Where Harry Potter Begins
It may be natural to already perceive Hogwarts Legacy as a Harry Potter prequel simply based on the fact that it takes place before the novel and theatrical franchises’ events occur. Hogwarts Legacy concerns itself with Ancient Magic almost exclusively and takes place so long before Harry Potter that it would be difficult to intertwine the two more unapologetically, and yet it doesn’t shy away from familiar surnames or lore that was established centuries later.
For instance, players get to witness Salazar Slytherin’s humble plans for what would eventually be known as the Chamber of Secrets while names such as Weasley or Black depict ancestors of characters who are more popularly known in Harry Potter. Therefore, a sequel could inch itself closer to the era when Tom Riddle was enrolled at Hogwarts and portray how he ominously and discreetly began his journey to becoming a dark lord via the protagonist’s perspective.
Due to how poor the reception to the Fantastic Beasts movies has been, it wouldn’t be surprising if future wizarding world movies, novels, or games collectively elect to ignore them.
Hogwarts Legacy’s Sequel Could Have a ‘Terrible… But Great’ Companion Character
If Hogwarts Legacy’s sequel was revealed and explained that it took place around the same time that Tom would’ve been a student, it would be nearly impossible to deny or avoid that he’d be a relevant character. The best the sequel could do in this case is not state anything about him and allow players to stumble across him as if he was any ordinary classmate NPC.
What could be even more thrilling is if players interacted with Tom as a companion character with his own questline, not unlike Slytherin’s Sebastian Sallow in Hogwarts Legacy. Players obviously wouldn’t be able to make dialogue choices that affect the course of Tom’s storyline, but neither could they affect the course Sebastian’s storyline takes and it’d still be exciting to see it play out as a peer of Tom’s.
Assuming that the Harry Potter show is following the original story fairly closely, Hogwarts Legacy’s sequel would then act as a neat preface to it for anyone inclined to take that deep dive with a game. In many ways, too, this would make HBO’s show not only an adaptation of the books but of Hogwarts Legacy’s lore. Only time will tell now if Hogwarts Legacy’s wizarding world successor is set anywhere closer to when Harry Potter takes place, much less if it aims to be an appetizer to the upcoming Harry Potter series’ main course at all.
Leave a Reply