20 Harry Potter Characters That Deserve Spin-offs

We come up with the twenty awesome Harry Potter spin offs, starring characters from the Wizarding World.

The spin off has become a staple in our entertainment world over the past twenty five years or so. And who doesn’t love a good spin off? For the production company, it is a known quantity, with a preplanned marketing scheme and a built in audience of fans from the original series. For the actors, this is steady work playing a character they’ve known for years. And for the audience, it’s a chance to return to a world they enjoyed thoroughly the first time, but exploring it from a different angle, and getting to know the stories of those who were hitherto fore minor characters.

Then there’s the opportunity for format change. A franchise that started out as a series of movies can be rebooted and reborn in other venues. There’s everything from comic books to novels for all popular franchises. But with the renewed interest and calls for a Harry Potter TV show, coupled with the response to the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy suggests that the Potterverse could support a ton of different variations of spin-offs before all is said and done.

Speaking of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we cannot imagine that producers aren’t looking at this intense fandom that still exists for all things Potter related, and trying to figure out what other pitches for shows might be made off of characters from the Potterverse. To that end, we’ve sat down and listed out potential projects involving some of the most popular secondary characters from the Harry Potter series, plus a few major ones, and laid out pitches for Warner Brothers and J.K. Rowling to consider.

Without further ado, check out our ideas for twenty spin-offs starring Harry Potter characters that we believe should happen as soon as possible.

Next: The Xeno-Files

20. Xenophilius Lovegood

Our first character is the father of the zaniest little witch this side of Diagon Alley. Xeno Lovegood! The propriator of the Wizarding World version of the Weekly World News deserves his own spin-off. We have two different ideas for him, one for a movie and one for a television show.

The Movie Pitch: It’s The X-Files meets the Potterverse. Call it The Xeno-Files. Xenophilius is known for writing stories for his self-published paper, The Quibbler. But what if all those half-baked paranoid stories turned out to be true? Or even better, after a lifetime of never being able to prove any of what he publishes, Xeno falls down a rabbit hole of mystery, as shadowy figures, some claiming to be from the ministry, some lying about who they are, thwart him at every turn as he tries to gain access to the truth about Dark Magic and it’s stronghold within the UK’s magical government.

The TV Pitch: It’s the TMZ TV for the Wizarding World! Call it XL TV. Done in the same style as TMZ TV, this is one part tabloid and one part speculative half hour program. It’s the epitome of “tabloid TV” and will give those wizards at home who suspect all of their neighbors of wrongdoing a way to spy on them, while Xeno speculates what about terrible magic they could be up to. Every week there’s a segment on invisible creatures, where Xeno sends a camera out to follow what looks like nothing, while he explains to the viewers about the beasts they cannot see.

Next: WizardRadio

19. Lee Jordan

Lee’s career in radio began innocuously as a sports announcer for the Quidditch Games at Hogwarts. During the Second Wizarding War, he did a version of Radio Free Wizardry, bringing news to all those who were resisting Voldemort and his Death Eaters. His program, Potterwatch, was must-listen radio for everyone and anyone who had a loved one involved in the war.

Because of this background, Lee would be uniquely qualified to star in a TV spin off called WizardRadio.

The Pitch: It’s the 90s comedy NewsRadio meets the Potterverse, with Lee in the Dave Foley role, attempting to run a Wizard radio station with a group of wacky hosts and writers. His crew would consist of the Patil twins, Angelica Weasley (nee Johnson) and George Weasley in the Andy Dick role. Kingsley Shacklebolt would be a reoccurring guest star as the Minister of Magic, who is always trying to use his connections with Lee to pressure the station into running propaganda on behalf of the ministry, since Shacklebolt was once a Potterwatch contributor.

Next: Magical Life on Earth

18. Charlie Weasley

Charlie Weasley: the Weasley brother who ran off to train dragons. The easy pitch would be for a movie called How To Train Your Dragon, we have a better idea. (But we have to admit, that’s a catchy title! Someone should write a book with that name!)

The Pitch: we see Charlie Weasley as a young Wizarding World version of David Attenborough, introducing us to the World of Magical Creatures. Much like Attenborough, we propose he start slowly with a show like Animal Patterns, where he works with animals who are in semi-captivity and introduces the audience to them in a safe environment.

From there, we can take his show global, with specials focused on different magical creatures across all seven continents. The series, which we propose calling Magical Life on Earth, would not only run on Wizarding television, but could in fact be adapted for Muggle TV as well, running on the BBC and PBS. It is up to the Muggle producers if they wish to run it straight as a documentary, or if they feel that a fictionized framing device would go over better.

Next: Saint Emmeline

17. Emmeline Vance

One of the very few two-time members of the Order of the Phoenix, we see Emmeline Vance as perfect for her own stand-alone spin off film. Unlike Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, we don’t see this as a trilogy, but rather as a movie set in the interwar period during the late 1980s, as Vance moves in to lodging near the Muggle Prime Minister in order to keep an eye on the political movements in the non-Wizarding world, a world that lies side by side with her own, even though on one ever seems to notice it.

The Pitch: This is The Saint meets the Potterverse. Vance is a master of disguise. She dips her toes into the Cold War as the UK and the USSR square off, trying to keep abreast of anything that might be coming out of Durstrang (which, as we know, is run during this time by ex-Death Eater Igor Karkaroff.) Karkoff is initially seen as the bad guy, but he’s actually a red herring. The true danger, as she learns by the end, lies in Albania.

The movie will feature cameo appearances by Daniel Craig as Alastor “Mad Eye” Moody, Michael Gambon reprising Albus Dumbledore and Penelope Wilton as Augusta Longbottom.

Next: For Magical Eyes Only

16. Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody

Speaking of the cold war, we see an entire series of movies for Alastor Moody. The man who would eventually be known as Mad-Eye was the best Auror of his day, and when he first started out in the field in the 1960s, he was a young Scotsman, dashing and handsome, but never tied down to one woman for too long. The spy life and the hunt for dark wizards is his true passion. You see where we’re going with this, right?

The Pitch: James Bond Meets Magical Law Enforcement.

Let’s start at the beginning, with a movie we’ll call “Healer No.” A recent graduate of Hogwarts, Moody is recruited in to the elite Auror group known as WI-6, and made a 00 Agent, searching out dark wizards who scattered after the fall of Gellert Grindelwald. Over the course of the next six movies, we see the growing threat of a mysterious figure who may be the half-blood son of the Gaunt family, but no one can verify it. In each successive movie, he manages to slip through Moody’s fingers at the last minute, leaving him only underlings and red herrings.

Then comes Diamond Wands Are Forever, set in 1971: Voldemort is finally revealed in his full glory, allowing the next movies to chronicle Moody’s fight alongside Dumbledore in the Order of the Phoenix. In “Hex and Let Die,” we see Moody lose his eye and gain his trademark magical one. He loses his leg in “The Witch Who Loved Me.” In “For Magical Eyes Only” we see the aftermath of Voldemort’s fall, including the Ministry trials and the Longbottoms’ fate. Finally, we see a return to the War and Voldemort’s return with the 1995 set film Goldenmadeye.

Next: Oddities: Diagon Alley

15. Arthur Weasley

Arthur Weasley is famous for his obsession with Muggles and Muggle artifacts, so much so that his official position in the ministry is that of the head of the Office for the Detection and Confiscation of Counterfeit Defensive Spells and Protective Objects, in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office. We’re proposing a TV show for Arthur, one that I think might be right up his alley given his obsession with all things Muggle, even if he’s still not sure what the function of a rubber duck is.

With his son Fred dead and gone after the Second Wizarding War, we feel that Arthur would leave the Ministry and retire to try his own hand at running a shop. We would base a reality show around this store, a spin-off of an already popular reality series that runs on Discovery, called Oddities.

The Pitch: Oddities: Diagon Alley would follow in the footsteps of the original Oddities series, and the spin-off set in San Francisco, but as a sort of opposite day version. Where those who run Obscura Antiques & Oddities on a daily basis receive bizarre occult objects and magical items that have accidentally found their way into the Muggle world, Arthur’s Obscura shop would involve wizards and witches bringing in Muggle items they happen upon on a regular basis. Arthur would research the items and tell the audience about the history of these bizarre items. (We suggest the first episode include such things as a “business card holder” a “sharpie marker” and a length of “electrical cord.”)

Sons George and Ron, who run the Weasley Wizard Wheezes around the corner, would stop by for cameos.

Next: Padfoot Goes Down

14. Sirius Black

Although what everyone really wants is to see a film series focused on the Marauders time in Hogwarts during the 1970s, we feel that it might be better to do a series of stand-alone movies that focus down on each of the members of the group and the home lives they dealt with outside of school. With that in mind, we’d start this series focusing on the character who most embodies the “Live Fast, Die Young” philosophy of the group: Sirius Black.

The Pitch: Igby Goes Down, but set in the Potterverse. Call it Padfoot Goes Down, if you’d like. Much like the Igby character in the Muggle version of the movie, Sirius is a teenager who finds himself and his beliefs at war with those of this family, the members of which set a lot of stone by being a part of the “ancient and noble house of Black.” His father is a pure blood maniac who married his second cousin and is ready to disown his son if he doesn’t conform to the family’s beliefs. His mother, Walburga, isn’t just cold and distant, but tinged with insanity, blasting faces from the Black family tapestry after they “betray” the family. Tensions become higher as a frightening black dog is seen outside the house at night, and Sirius’ parents become convinced it is an evil spirit who they must destroy at all costs.

Next: Teen Wolf

13. Remus Lupin

This one’s easy. Has there ever been a character better suited for a Teen Wolf-style series than Remus Lupin, a sensitive good guy by day, and a murderous animal by full moonlight?

The Pitch: Forget the movies that came before, or the current televised dramas. This one’s a movie filmed like a faux reality show set in the 1970s.

The major issue here is getting permission to film the show inside Hogwarts, as Remus’ day-to-day school life is paramount to the drama of a teen boy whose growing pains are punctuated with monthly “disappearances” to “look after his mother” when he’s really heading to the Shrieking Shack to be held prisoner during his transformation periods. We would hold off on showing the transformation during most of the first season. Although the audience would know what’s happening, keeping that part offscreen until the very end of the first season will build tension—the audience will tune in every week to see if this is the episode when it happens.

Then, the climax: we finally see Remus in full wolf form when he accidentally escapes the shack and his friends have to try and keep him contained over night in the Forbidden Forest, with the help of the Centaurs. The casting would cross over with Padfoot Goes Down.

Next: Boy Meets Wizarding World

12. James Potter

Unlike Sirius and Remus, James Potter is a boy with a normal family and a good home life. Born into lucky upper class pure-bloooded circumstances, his movie would teach viewers the normal everyday life lessons learned by those who are born into the wizarding world.

The Pitch: Entitled Boy Meets Wizarding World, we start with James before he goes to Hogwarts, growing up easy in Godric’s Hollow. He’s not aware of the blessed life he leads, or the ancient heritage of his family, although he does have lots of fun playing with his father’s Invisibility Cloak and getting into minor scrapes.

Fast forward to him heading off to school, where he meets Sirius and Remus, kids who have real problems. This discovery of his privilege, mixed with his meeting other pure-blood wizards who pressure him to join with them against the Mudbloods, the Muggle-borns, and downright weirdos like Sirius and Remus, and you have a series of coming-of-age movies where James learns the difference between doing what is right and doing what is easy.

The film ends in 1978, at graduation, where James is told the truth about his family’s heritage, which stretches all the way back to the Peverells, and about the cloak that he’s had so much fun with. He vows that he will make this a better world for his own children, and joins the Order of the Phoenix to defeat Voldemort. The casting would cross over with Teen Wolf and Padfoot Goes Down.

Next: Magical In Pink

11. Lily Evans

The mother of Harry Potter rounds out our four movies based on the Marauder’s time at school. Lily Evans is not a Marauder, though. She’s an outsider, a Mudblood at Hogwarts during a time of war against the Muggles, trying to behave as normally as she can when she returns to her Muggle home during summer vacations, in order not to displease her strict parents or be bullied by her sister Petunia.

We see Lily Evans’ story as one of a girl born on the wrong side of the tracks, trying to decide between the life she’s been born into and the one she aspires to be in, especially when pure-blood wizard James Potter takes a shine to her.

The Pitch: This is Pretty in Pink with a side of magic, and Lily Evans played by a modern Molly Ringwald type. Call it Magical In Pink. We’d need a serious indie soundtrack to represent Evans’ Muggle background. Severus Snape would start out in the role of Best Friend Ducky, but with a more malicious and gothy edge. Unlike in the original movie, where Ducky takes his rejection in stride, we see that Lily’s final choice of James over him is the thing that drives him to sign up with the Death Eaters and choose to follow Voldemort. There would be crossovers with Boy Meets Wizarding World, Teen Wolf, and Padfoot Goes Down.

Next: All In The Muggle Family

10. Dudley Dursley

We return now to the world of television spin-offs. This is our first spin-off that’s set way in the future, years after the Second Wizarding War. Designed to air both on Wizard and Muggle TV, this show is made for a world where wizards are learning to accept the more liberal and progressive times brought about under Shacklebolt’s time as Minister, as well as presenting to Muggles that there are open minded wizards and witches in the world and we can in fact all get along.

The Pitch: “All In The Muggle Family.”

This will star Dudley Dursley in his older years. His life has gone about as expected, with the economic downturn in the UK keeping him firmly entrenched in the working class both monetarily and values-wise. His wife is a sweet Muggle by the name of Rosie, and ever since meeting his cousin Harry and his magically inclined family, she’s been working hard to maintain the family ties Dudley won’t admit are important to him. But it’s when their magically inclined daughter brings home a thickheaded hippie wizard of her own, who, Dudley calls “Magichead,” that the clash of cultures really begins. Like the Bunkers, the clash between Magichead and Dudley represents the real-life difficulties that wizards can encounter when members of their families marry Muggles who might have prejudiced family members, while also navigating a wizarding cutlure that pressure them to dump their Muggle relatives.

There’s also an educational aspect, as Dudley may fail to learn the lessons of tolerance that those around him are trying to teach, but the audience does. We would also work to bring Harry Potter and his wife Ginny in for cameos on a couple of Very Special Episodes.

Next: Fleur

9. Fleur Delacour

After the TriWizard Tournament, Fleur, the quarter-Veela witch who was now famous in her home country of France as its TriWizard champion, chose not to go home to Beauxbatons. Although her family was waiting for her, Fleur’s experience in the tournament left her with a changed view of life. After Cedric was killed by Voldemort in the horrendous final task, she found herself questioning everything about her life and her upbringing, and decided to stay in England and get a job…in a bank.

The Pitch: Fleur, the “magical witch remake” of Amelie. It’s a fish-out-of-water French comedy. Nothing in Fleur’s life prepared her for the experience of working in a bank, and nothing in her life prepared her for the experience of living in the world of English Magic. Often lonely and homesick, Fleur’s mischievous personality gets her in and out of odd scrapes, and the handsome Bill Weasley is always there, even as she attempts to spur his romantic overtures. Instead, she tries to make the lives of the wizards and witches about her better, as she knows their time may be short, what with the ministry lying to them about Voldemort’s return. Her increasingly complex schemes magically pay off, until she herself finds herself caught up in one that only Bill Weasley can help her solve, and she realizes that she can find happiness, too.

Next: Magical Mission: Impossible

8. Nymphadora Tonks

Back to the spy genre, but this time, the main character is female. She’s the brand new spy whose learning the ropes, and a master of disguise due to her Metamorphmagus abilities. Nymphadora Tonks is a Hufflepuff who wants to do right by the world, but wants to do it in the most bad-ass way possible. She takes a position as an Auror, and her abilities quickly catch the eye of her superiors, who assign her to the elite squad helmed by Mad Eye Moody.

The Pitch: This is Magical Mission: Impossible, but with Tonks in the role of Ethan Hunt. When the team is betrayed from within by an undercover Death Eater wannabe who is working to bring Voldemort back, she is framed for the murder of her team and has to set about clearing her own name to Moody, who suspects her of being the mole.

This is a high-octane action film, with Tonks not only changing faces and hair at every turn, but if possible doing all her own stunts. We would be looking at doing at least a full trilogy of movies set during Tonks’ time at the ministry, when she and her colleagues are battling the shadowy figures who are trying to bring about Voldemort’s return. The final movie would be plotted around the disappearance of Moody, and Tonk’s mission to find out what happened to her mentor, while a man who clearly is not really him pretends to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts.

Next: The Magic Chef

7. Molly Weasley

Cooking doesn’t come naturally, either to Muggles or to Wizards and Witches. Just because one type of family has slow cookers and the other has magic doesn’t make baking any less of an art form. That’s why we’re proposing a TV spin-off for Molly Weasley that’s one part cooking tutorial and one part lifestyle show about raising a large family of wizards when times are tight.

The pitch: this is The Magical Pioneer Woman meets Rachael Ray. We’d like to go classic with the title and refer back to Julia Child with The Magic Chef, complete with a companion cookbook called Mastering the Art of Magical Cooking. But as we all know, just doing cooking shows is no longer a viable business model. We’ll need to create an entire lifestyle brand here, with Molly Weasley-branded cookery and utensils, both the magical version and a “Mugglfied” one.

The goal, if this takes off, is to have it run on Food Network, and to integrate Molly’s warm and relatable personality into the line up—she could fill the gap that was left after Paula Deen was fired. We would anticipate that, if all goes well, that she would make guest appearances on shows like The Kitchen, judging stints on Chopped, and could compete on Alton Brown’s Cutthroat Kitchen, where magic is allowed by those with the ability.

Next: The Hippogriff Hunter

6. Rubeus Hagrid

This would be another nature program, sort of like the idea we had for Charlie Weasley, but with the common man’s touch. I believe Tumblr put it best:

I want Hagrid to make a television show and be like Steve Irwin but with magical creatures. “Crikey, look ’t that! That’s a Hungarian Horntail, that is! Now, the Min’stry classifies these beautiful beasts as XXXXX bu’ that’s rubbish! Oh! Bless his hear’; he’s breathin’ fire! Let’s get a closer look, eh!?”

From this description, we can see exactly the sort of show we are talking about.

The Pitch: Steve Irwin of Magical Creatures. Entitled The Hippogriff Hunter, Hagrid would begin his show in the UK, focusing on the local magical flora and fauna. As the show increases in popularity we could look at chartering a plane big enough for a half-giant and taking him out to Australia and New Zealand, where some of the wildest and most extraordinary magical creatures live, and set him loose so he can go attempt to make friends with them. We would probably need to keep several healers on hand at all times, and make members of the camera crew sign waivers in case they or are dismembered.

Next: Transfiguration Society

5. Albus Dumbledore

There are many stories to be told about the life of Albus Dumbledore. We think a full ten-part television biography focusing on his fight against the Dark Arts over the course of his life, first against Grindelwald, and then against Voldemort in the First and Second Wizarding Wars, is probably best left to Ken Burns, or to his half-blood son. We are far more interested on drilling down to a specific point in his life: the mid to late 1930s, when he was the beloved professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts.

The Pitch: this is Dead Poets Society set at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore’s unorthodox methods of teaching Transfiguration take it from a class the students suffer though to one that brings them a lifelong love of the hardest magic there is to master. Call it Transfiguration Society.

During this period, Dumbledore also makes a trip to Wool’s Orphanage and brings back a student named Tom Riddle, who makes him uneasy. Riddle’s exploits, including opening the Chamber of Secrets, put Dumbledore’s position at risk, and when a student is accidentally stuck as a frog after a transfiguration session gone bad, Dumbledore resigns his position, with plans of heading off to find Gellert Grindelwald and put a stop to the Great War against Muggles that was then underway. The climax of the movie features students at Hogwarts standing on their desks as he leaves, reciting “Oh Wizard, My Wizard!”

Next: Diagoners

4. Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott

Another set-in-the-future spin off, this married couple from pure-blooded wizarding families anchor a soap opera serial that we are hoping will run for a long time, and perhaps become one of UK Wizarding TV’s long-running serials.

The Pitch: Eastenders, but for the Magical World. Call it Diagoners. Although the initial series will focus on Neville, who is the Herbology teacher on campus at Hogwarts, and Hannah, who runs the Leaky Caludron, and their life together above the pub, the idea is that we expand the cast over the course of the seasons. We meet the Longbottoms’ neighbors, the street regulars, the other owners of the shops that line Diagon Alley, and learn about their lives, their personal dramas, and the difficulties that exist when your business is on a street that most people walk on by and never see. The hope is to be able to include not only the Weasley clan, since Weasley Wizarding Wheezes would be right down the street from The Leaky Cauldron, but also the Ollivanders from the wand shop. The show might even dive down Knockturn Alley and see what dramas are going on behind those drawn curtains. Comic relief will be provided by the goblin workers from Gringotts, who come by the Cauldron every Friday night to get soused.

Next: Keeping Up With The Snorkackians

3. Luna Lovegood

If the title Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hadn’t been taken only a few months back, we might be pitching a different series. Luna Lovegood, after all, is married to Rolf Scamander, a magizoologist and grandson of the writer of that famous guide. The two are naturalists who study the care of magical creatures, although Rolf has to balance his passion with his position as Chief Consulting Magizoologist to The Daily Prophet.

The Pitch: a reality series with Luna and Rolf as they travel the continent with their twin children, studying wildlife. Luna is famous for finding several brand new species of magical creatures, though she has so far been unable to locate the Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Her quest can be part of the running search, and a bit of a running joke in the family. Let’s call it Keeping Up With The Snorkackians.

Their high profile friendships with famous people, along with Luna’s infamy in the fashion department, would also be fodder for their home life, which will include dinners out with the Potters and the Weasleys, as well Luna’s attendance at fashion shows and the drama that Rita Skeeter’s comments in The Daily Prophet cause.

2. Ginny Weasley

Everyone is always interested in Harry Potter, but we find his wife Ginny to be just as fascinating. Her tenure with the Holyhead Harpies, a professional Quidditch team, was very successful, and her fame in Quidditch-playing circles seems sometimes to eclipse that of her husband. During the 2014 Quidditch World Cup, her reporting from the Patagonian Desert was the most widely read coverage of the event. To that end, we are proposing she have her own sports program.

The Pitch: Quidditch Sportscenter. Since Ginny is such a popular sports reporter, let’s give her her own evening program where she sums up the biggest games of the day, does deep dives into the background of the players, and shows highlights of competitions around the globe. Special interest would be given to graduating seniors who play for the International Wizarding Schools and the yearly team draft. Her co-hosts would include popular ex play Viktor Krum, sit down interviews with Ludo Bagman, and a pair of transfigured sidekicks, a newt known as Kornheiser and a bullfrog called Wilbon, who she continually promises to transfigure back to their human forms if they can just get through a single segment without resorting to terrible jokes.

1. Hermione Granger

She is the Greatest Witch of Her Age. Since leaving her husband Ron, she is proof that witches can have it all. She travels the world in her bewitched flying house, with her children in tow, running the wizarding world with no one to thank her. She is Hermione Granger.

The Pitch: It’s the Mary Tyler Moore Show for the 21st century, with magic. For many women, the Harry Potter novels are really Hermione Graner novels anyway, a story about a patient witch putting up with two dunderheads who haven’t ever bothered to read Hogwarts: A History. So let’s give them what they want: the story of the adult Hermione and her struggles to have it all. We see Kingsley Shacklebolt in the Lou Grant role as the lovable, but yelly, boss, and Rita Skeeter as in the buffoonish Ted Baxter spot. We would divide up the Rhoda role between Katie Bell, Hannah Longbottom and Susan Bones, all of whom are career gals and close Hermione pals, as they make their way through marriages, careers and motherhood. (The success of Sex and the City and Girls suggests several female companions is the way to go nowadays.) They would also be up for possible spin offs of the spin off down the line. Major obstacle is gaining the rights to the Sonny Curtis track “Love is All Around” for the opening credits. Perhaps we could speak to KFaceTV about a cover version.

Next: First North American Wizardry Story: 14th – 17th Century

We hope Warner Brothers sees our pitches and takes these possible spin offs into consideration. Any characters you think we might have missed? Any other ideas for spin offs we didn’t think of? Pitch your ideas in the comments for us!