Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is shaping up to be a must-see 2026 event, especially now that a new character is set to make an inevitably cringe-inducing debut. As HBO’s new series prepares for its end-of-year release, all kinds of seeds are being planted for what fans can expect from Season One. We know that HBO is already setting up a much darker Hogwarts and that, despite a few creative liberties, this iteration of Potter will aim to be as loyal to the source material as possible. We also know that there’s going to be an agonizing wait in between new episodes, as the show will follow a weekly release schedule as opposed to dropping all eight episodes at once.
Now, compliments of HBO’s special Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic, we have a better idea of just how deep the creative team’s dive into J.K. Rowling’s magical world has gone. The special revealed that everything from the characters’ wardrobes to the show’s elaborate full-scale sets will be riddled with Potterhead-pleasing details. As expected following the release of the first teaser trailer, this Wizarding World’s magic will be grounded in nature, meaning heavy emphasis has been placed on how natural elements like plants, leaves, and trees factor into the characters’ potions and spells. This also means that a number of creatures not yet seen in any Harry Potter or Fantastic Beasts live-action films are about to make their HBO debuts – including one that is sure to make viewers grimace.
‘Harry Potter’ Fans Are About To Meet a Fantastic, if Gruesome, New Beast
HBO’s Potter will not just be brimming with owls and rats, but also a number of critters you’d expect to find in a Fantastic Beasts sequel (at least before that franchise met its unceremonious end). As Creature Effects Design Supervisor John Nolan reveals in Finding Harry, Potter will introduce viewers to a character who is mentioned in the books but will only just be making its live-action debut: the Dugbog. This marsh-dwelling carnivore is a decidedly disgusting critter that looks like rotting wood when stationary and a barnacle-covered toad while awake. Nolan explains that the animatronic beastie has retractable eyes, a mechanical tongue, flaring nostrils, and branches growing out of its back that can be “snapped” off – a wise construction choice, given how many child actors are on set at any given time. As illustrated in the special, the Dugbog is a mossy, wet, mollusk-ridden creature you would not want to run into in the forest. And yet, at some point, it seems Harry and his friends are going to.
Clever Potterheads will remember that the Dugbog did appear in Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, but only in a newspaper headline. As an issue of the New York Ghost reports, a No-Maj (aka Muggle) was attacked by a Dugbog “Whilst Hiking In [the] Great Lakes.” This is because, while the Dugbog tends to feed on small animals, it does occasionally attack the ankles of humans who wade too far into its habitat. The Dugbog’s favorite food happens to be the Mandrake, which sets up a neat little bit of foreshadowing for Season Two of Potter, should the show be renewed. Though they’re not described in detail in the Potter books, they do make an appearance in Half-Blood Prince, when a faulty Spell-Checking Quill prompts Ron to misspell “Dementors” as “Dugbogs.” They also appear as enemies in Hogwarts Legacy, among other Potter video games, seemingly cementing HBO’s plan to link Legacy with Potter as much as possible.
‘Potter’s Gross Beasties Don’t Stop There
The Dugbog is not the only magical creature making a nauseating debut in HBO’s Potter. As Nolan goes on to explain (and illustrate with his own hands), the Creature Effects team also spent time developing slime-covered Flobberworms for Season One. These vegetation-chewing mucus excreters are as gross as they sound, and though they’re toothless herbivores, they’re not entirely useless to the wizarding community. Their mucus can thicken potions, including Sleeping Draughts, and they can even be transfigured into fritters and served for lunch at Hogwarts. (Yum?) Though characters like Ron find them dreadfully boring in the books, they’re so nasty on sight that they’ll inevitably evoke instant fascination from younger viewers and revulsion from their parents.
Potter will also include fire crabs that shoot actual flames out of their backsides as well as a lifelike Scabbers that will make rat-haters openly squirm. Nolan, who worked on the Prisoner of Azkaban and Goblet of Fire films over 20 years ago, explains that technological advances have allowed the new animatronic rat to be less robotic and rigid than its predecessor. Even if it’s bound to make the audience gag, he argues that the rat’s more malleable nature helps a younger performer (like new Ron Weasley actor Alastair Stout) feel like he’s handling a real animal – even if Scabbers is not, you know, a real animal. The team even made a “biting Scabbers” that looks like the stuff of nightmares as it hangs off the end of a crew member’s finger.
If there’s one animal that’s sure to evoke the least amount of kerfuffle, it’ll be one of the 10 owls the team designed for Season One. Even though they’re made of metal and plastic, extensive time has been put into studying real owls and making the animatronic ones on the show appear real. An entire feather team exists to help the owls’ exteriors not only hide the inner motors, wires, and gears, but also make them look as organic as possible. Each feather is individually inserted into a net that covers the entire owl, with over 36,000 feathers needed per bird. It’s this commitment to detail that is bound to make HBO’s Potter a show to remember – even if it’s also facing a fair share of painful problems.
- Release Date
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2026 – 2026
- Showrunner
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Francisca Gardiner
- Directors
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Mark Mylod
