Harry Potter Actor Confirms Change For HBO Show’s First Season

3 weeks ago 19

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets promo image with Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy and Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy

Published Feb 14, 2026, 6:13 PM EST

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Johnny Flynn, who plays Lucius Malfoy in HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series, confirmed that his character will appear in the show’s first season, signaling a change from the books’ original story.

The HBO Harry Potter adaptation is one of the most ambitious television projects in fantasy history, aiming to expand J.K. Rowling’s book saga into a long-form series with each book serving as a full season. The series is being developed by showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod and promises to be a more faithful and detailed adaptation than the original film franchise.

However, Flynn’s latest comments reveal that faithful does not necessarily mean identical. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Flynn spoke about joining the wizarding world as Lucius. He acknowledged the wider conversations surrounding author J. K. Rowling’s controversial opinions about the trans community. Flynn also confirmed that Lucius will appear in season 1, even though the character is barely featured in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Read his full comments below:

Obviously, there’s quite a lot of stuff around Jo [J.K.] Rowling. I suppose that’s been quite interesting to navigate, the conversations there — but all important conversations to have. The people working on this are really, really great and create a really special atmosphere, [like] Francesca [Gardiner] the showrunner, and Mark Mylod and various directors.

There’s such care. I’m basically not in the first book. Lucius is hardly in book one at all, but I’m in the first series. So it’s quite a thing to go do a day and then have a month or so [off] and come back and everybody’s got these really tight relationships. But it’s such a welcoming environment.

While Lucius has always been a powerful figure within the franchise, he becomes a more significant presence in later books, beginning with the second entry, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Increasing his role by introducing him in season 1 suggests that HBO’s adaptation may broaden its scope beyond Harry’s limited point of view.

Johnny Flynn as Dickie Greenleaf in Ripley

The books are largely told from Harry’s perspective, meaning that many events involving adult characters happen off-page. A television series, however, allows for more freedom to explore storylines happening to other characters, therefore expanding the wizarding world in a way that the Harry Potter film franchise wasn’t able to.

This change could allow the show to build up the Malfoy family’s influence earlier, planting the seeds for future conflicts and giving audiences a better understanding of the political tensions from the very beginning. This could also result in stronger continuity between seasons, especially if this adaptation intends to map out long-term character arcs over a longer period of time.

The new cast for HBO’s Harry Potter includes Dominic McLaughlin as Harry, Arabella Stanton as Hermione, and Alastair Stout as Ron. Rounding out the adult roles are John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Professor McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, alongside Flynn.

Given that each season is expected to cover a single novel, the show has far more time to focus on side characters as well as explore more storylines and events than the films did. This does not necessarily mean the adaptation will stray far from the source material. Instead, it suggests that audiences will be able to see the book's smaller details come to life for the first time.

Harry's first year at Hogwarts will probably stay the same, but the world around him might feel bigger and more connected right from the start. As production on the series continues, Flynn’s comments offer an early glimpse into how the new Harry Potter show will adapt the beloved story into a different format. However, audiences will have to wait until 2027 to see if the HBO Harry Potter series will be a successful adaptation.