Five key plot points the new Harry Potter series should have (that the films didn’t)

The trailer for the first season of the new Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, has sparked passionate discussion online: Does popular culture IP need to keep being rehashed? Is the series taking on too much of a similar aesthetic as the first movie, as the trailer seems to indicate?

But the biggest issue of all is about plot points – diehard fans are keen to see what was lost in the movies reinstated in HBO Max’s TV series, which will drop for Christmas 2026.

The Philosopher’s Stone is the shortest of the book series but despite this, many tiny details and interactions were omitted from the 2001 film’s adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s novel. Now they could easily be included in the longer eight-part series, making the story much richer.

Here are five we want to see on the screen.

1. Peeves the poltergeist

The mischievous poltergeist who haunts Hogwarts, Peeves, is an agent of chaos sorely missed in the first film. Often moving between walls, he was a constant source of annoyance and pain to everyone at the school, with the Bloody Baron and Albus Dumbledore the only ones able to control him.

He helped the prankster twins, Fred and George Weasley, with their antics and opposed Dolores Umbridge when she was the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, High Inquisitor, and eventually Headmistress at Hogwarts in the fifth book. Peeves’ character also helped fight Lord Voldemort during the Second Wizarding War.

2. Bane the centaur

Despite the inclusion of the beloved centaur, Firenze, in the film adaptation, many fans were quick to point out the omission of another centaur: Bane. Bane is a fiercely anti-human centaur who lives in the Forbidden Forest and berates Firenze for rescuing Harry from a Lord Voldemort cloaked as a hooded figure, drinking unicorn blood. By saving Harry, Firenze defied his herd’s belief that they should not interfere with the star’s fate, which predicted Harry’s death.

3. The midnight duel

Draco Malfoy is a lying, scheming bully in the first film. Believe it or not, he’s even worse in the book. In the novel, Draco challenges Harry to a midnight duel in the trophy room. Little does Harry know, it’s a trap – Draco never turns up, leaving Harry and his comrades to be caught by Hogwart’s caretaker, Filch.

While evading the grumpy caretaker, Harry and co accidentally discover Fluffy the three-headed dog, the very creature guarding the trapdoor to the philosopher’s stone. The plot immediately thickens.

Meanwhile, Draco’s wily ways play no part in this discovery in the movie. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville end up in the third-floor corridor while trying to escape Filch after returning from Hagrid’s hut, making their Fluffy discovery even more incidental.

4. The battle with Quirrell

In the final battle scene in the Sorcerer’s Stone film, Harry’s touch burns Quirrell, and he begins to dissolve. Meanwhile, the battle scene in the book focuses more on the link between Harry and Voldemort, and how being in proximity of one another causes Harry severe mental pain, to the point where he passes out.

5. The second Quidditch match

An entire match of Quidditch between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff did not make it into the final cut. In the book, Snape referees the second game, which raises the scepticism of Gryffindors who believe he tried to kill Harry in the first match.

However, the match was short-lived because Harry caught the golden snitch about five minutes into the match, making it one of the shortest in Hogwarts history.