Harry Potter TV Series Finally Brings Back a Book Character Movies Erased

HBO is dusting off a Harry Potter deep cut for its new TV series: Professor Cuthbert Binns is finally getting screen time, and he already has an actor. Yes, that Binns — the infamously sleep-inducing ghost who teaches History of Magic in the books but never made it into the movies.

Meet Professor Cuthbert Binns (finally)

Richard Durden has been cast as Binns, the spectral lecturer whose classes are legendary for all the wrong reasons. In the books, he nods off in the staff room, dies in his sleep, and then just... keeps showing up to teach as a ghost. He handles History of Magic for Harry's first three years at Hogwarts — Harry drops it after that — and he is the one who lays out the whole Chamber of Secrets legend during Year 2. Binns was completely absent from the films, so his arrival here is a legit book-faithful surprise.

New and returning Hogwarts staff

• Richard Durden as Professor Cuthbert Binns
• Warwick Davis returning as Professor Filius Flitwick
• Sirine Saba as Herbology professor Pomona Sprout
• Brid Brennan as Madam Poppy Pomfrey

Durden's one of those faces you have definitely seen: Silent Witness, Ghosts (appropriately), Bridgerton, and plenty more.

Chris Columbus wants the deep cuts back

Director Chris Columbus, who made the first two films, told Radio Times he is hoping the series restores book moments he had to leave on the cutting room floor the first time around.

"There was so much we couldn't put in the films - they weren't short, they were over two and a half hours long, but I still struggled. It still keeps me up at night sometimes."

Top of his list is a very inside-baseball omission: Peeves, Hogwarts' chaotic poltergeist. In the original film, comedian Rik Mayall actually shot scenes as Peeves, but the character was ultimately scrapped because the team was never satisfied with how he looked on screen.

"I missed the fact that I was never able to put Peeves in the first film."

Columbus also name-checked the potions logic puzzle from Philosopher's Stone — part of that gauntlet near the end — and the broader sequence he describes as a nail-biting chess match that time wouldn't allow.

"Plus, there is a scene in the first book, Philosopher's Stone, where Hermione and Harry are tasting potions in one of the challenges, and one of them could die at any moment. It's like this incredible chess match that we just did not have time to shoot. So hopefully those scenes will be reinstated. They have 10 hours. I hope they use them well."

The Rowling context, still very present

As ever with Harry Potter news, there is the ongoing conversation around author JK Rowling's views on transgender rights. In 2020, she published a lengthy essay on sex and gender that was criticized by LGBTQ+ groups including Stonewall. In 2024, she posted on X that "there are no trans kids" and pushed back on the idea that a child can be "born in the wrong body." In May 2025, she launched the JK Rowling Women's Fund, which says it provides legal funding to individuals and organizations fighting to retain women's sex-based rights.

Cast members have split publicly: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson have distanced themselves from Rowling's views and voiced support for the trans community, while Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter, and Jim Broadbent have defended her amid the backlash.

Where to watch

The Harry Potter series will stream on HBO Max.