HBO's Harry Potter Is Finally Filling The Gaps With Dumbledore's Missing Story

Published Sep 2, 2026, 5:45 PM EDT Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy. Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones). We are just about three months away from the arrival of Harry Potter season 1, and HBO's newest trailer has provided us with a lot to think about. This is the second trailer for the installment officially titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, and is the most up-close-and-personal we've gotten with these characters and settings yet. Hogwarts, its teachers, the Golden Trio, various beasts, and a whole lot of magic have officially been brought to our screens. There's a lot worth noting here, especially regarding the difference in approach between HBO's Harry Potter TV show and Warner Bros' original movies. Modern special effects mean that the Wizarding world looks realer than ever before, and it's already clear that the performances from these actors will be absolutely stellar. There's reason to be particularly intrigued about what we saw from John Lithgow's Albus Dumbledore, who is featured quite a bit in this Harry Potter trailer. We saw previously that Lithgow looks very much the part. Now, this newest look at Harry Potter season 1 brought us closer. The headmaster watches Harry get sorted with interest, announces the start of term in the Great Hall, and shares a private conversation with Minerva McGonagall. Interestingly, two of these moments come straight from the book, while the other comes instead from the imaginations of HBO's writers. While this could be controversial, it's also extremely valuable. Harry Potter Season 1 Will Open A Window To A Key Part Of Dumbledore's Story J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books are told mostly from the perspective of Harry himself. This means that we, as readers, only typically get to listen in on conversations that Harry hears. Naturally, this often doesn't include private conversations between Albus Dumbledore and his staff, but HBO's series is putting that dominating perspective aside. It's now been revealed that, this time around, we will get to actually take a look at some of Dumbledore's more personal moments and actually see him set his plans to work. In the Harry Potter season 1 trailer, Dumbledore stands alone with McGonagall in a corridor and says, "We can't protect them. We can only prepare them." Baffled, McGonagall asks the headmaster what on earth they must prepare them for. The trailer itself doesn't answer the question, but those already familiar with the story know precisely what Dumbledore is talking about. The headmaster knows Lord Voldemort is going to return, and he has already set to work preparing Harry, Ron, and Hermione for their roles in the coming war. While it's always been evident that Dumbledore was pulling strings from the background, it wasn't until later books in the series that we learned just how much he had known and planned from the start. In book one, the headmaster already heard Harry and Voldemort's prophecy—"neither can live while the other survives." Still, Dumbledore had no clue how everything would work out. He had to keep an eye on Harry, learn about him, and place obstacles in his path to prepare him. With more scenes from Dumbledore's perspective, we can see all this up close and personal for the first time. HBO's Harry Potter Is Using Canon To Its Advantage - But Is That The Same As Being Book Faithful? Any Harry Potter scene that doesn't come directly from the books is going to be controversial. After all, HBO has promised a book-faithful adaptation, and it really can't fall short of that. Dumbledore and McGonagall's trailer scene isn't in the books, so it could be a problem. However, what is in the books is the revelation that McGonagall was often concerned about Dumbledore's approach. She was agitated that Harry wasn't better protected, but Dumbledore maintained that the boy needed to be able to test his strength. It's canon that this happened, even if we don't know exactly when or what was said. It looks as if HBO is going to really take advantage of that idea as its Harry Potter continues. It was previously teased that a scene would feature Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel having a clandestine meeting by the sea, likely to talk about their plans for the Philosopher's Stone. Such a conversation was never actually featured in the books, but we know it happened. HBO's Harry Potter can do something extremely valuable by showing us these moments. We can take a look inside Dumbledore's mind and better understand what he meant to do with various choices. There is a fine line between moments directly from the book and moments that could reasonably have happened based on canon, even if the books never showed them. In truth, the Harry Potter TV show must add new scenes that neither book nor movie fans have ever seen. It's the only way to make this show worth it. Some more intimate moments with Dumbledore's planning could be truly fantastic, so long as they are handled very, very carefully.