The HBO Harry Potter series finally has the chance to get Ginny right. Here's how

The recent set leak from HBO's Harry Potter series revealed that the team is currently filming the Platform 9¾ moment from the first book, Philosopher's Stone. For the uninitiated, the platform is the place where Hogwarts students board the Hogwarts Express each year. If the people involved in the HBO series follow the book closely, then they should adapt Ginny Weasley's first appearance correctly.

Potterheads love the eight movies, but there is one thing about the movies that fans have complained about ever since the movie franchise concluded in July 2011. The complaint is that the Harry Potter movies got almost every Ginny Weasley moment wrong on the screen. The first movie even changed Ginny's emotional state while her brothers were heading to Hogwarts.

In the Philosopher's Stone book, Ginny was upset that she needed to wait for an entire year to see Hogwarts, the movie, on the other hand, shows Ginny as calm and well-behaved.

People involved in the HBO Harry Potter series need to stick to the source material, including Ginny's behavior:

The movies probably got Ginny right only once: the film adaptation of Chamber of Secrets, which was the second movie in the franchise. They got her shyness right in that story, but forgot to evolve her as a more confident character, as we see her in the fifth book, when she is in her fourth year. But the seeds of change were planted in her very first appearance.

As mentioned earlier, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone book, Ginny was in tears because she was the only Weasley not going to Hogwarts in 1991, the year in which Philosopher's Stone takes place. While she is initially shy when she sees Harry (she does not realize that he is The Boy Who Lived), she asks her mother to board the Hogwarts Express in Platform 9¾ to see him.

However, the movie instead shows Bonnie Wright’s Ginny simply wishing Harry luck as he tries to access Platform 9¾ at King's Cross Station. This small change ended up being the harbinger of the fan-favorite character being stripped of what made the character special in the books.

By sticking to the source material, the HBO show might be able to flesh out Ginny's character better than the eight movies did. The show should do so to convince the viewers that Ginny is indeed Harry's soulmate.

What do we know about the show?

HBO has green-lit seven seasons, with each season adapting one book. Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton, and Alastair Stout headline the series as Harry, Hermione, and Ron, respectively. The first season will adapt the first book, Philosopher's Stone.

Other than that, the season will also introduce us to Janet McTeer's Minerva McGonagall, Nick Frost's Rubeus Hagrid, John Lithgow's Albus Dumbledore, and Paapa Essiedu's Severus Snape. The first season, like the Philosopher's Stone book and movie, will follow the year of the main trio as they learn the ropes of the magical world.

"Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry’s eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!"

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The HBO series, which is currently filming, is expected to be released in 2027.

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