Harry Potter Takes Flight in HBO’s New Philosopher’s Stone Trailer

HBO has released the second teaser for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and this time we’re leaving Privet Drive behind and getting a much better look at Harry’s first year at Hogwarts. The eight-episode first season arrives this Christmas, and the new footage finally starts showing off the magic, classes, Quidditch and some of the biggest moments from the first book.

There’s plenty here that Harry Potter fans will recognize immediately. We get Harry’s first Quidditch match, the Mirror of Erised, Wizard Chess and a new version of the troll in the dungeon. There’s more of Hogwarts itself, more of the redesigned Wizarding World and another look at Paapa Essiedu’s Severus Snape, who already looks to have decided that Harry Potter is going to be a problem.

So yes, we’re doing Hogwarts again.

What caught my attention, though, is the material that wasn’t actually shown in the book. The trailer gives us Ron receiving his Hogwarts letter and Hermione arriving on the Hogwarts Express, along with glimpses of James and Lily Potter before their deaths. That’s where an eight-episode television adaptation can actually do something different instead of just giving us longer versions of scenes we already know.

That may end up being the real reason for this series to exist. The movies had to keep moving, and even with eight films there was a lot from the books that never made it to the screen. HBO has the room to slow things down, spend more time with these characters and even show us parts of their lives Harry never saw himself. This trailer is still only a couple of minutes, so I’m not going to pretend we know exactly how well that’s going to work yet, but at least we’re starting to see what the extra time might be used for.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone stars Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley and Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger, alongside John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape and Nick Frost as Rubeus Hagrid. The series premieres on HBO and HBO Max this Christmas.