Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard was a recent special guest on Saturday Night Live, and while there were a ton of spoofs and homages to the popular Netflix sci-fi series, the night's biggest laugh came courtesy of the show's riff on HBO's upcoming Harry Potter television reboot.
However, SNL's version took an unexpected turn by purporting that there's an HBO exec somewhere, inspired by the popularity of Heated Rivalry, who has the “brilliant” idea to mash together two of the network’s biggest IPs into one wildly misguided and incredibly inappropriate concept.
And thus, Heated Wizardry was born. It's a show that definitely won't have J.K. Rowling's backing.
The sketch was even further elevated by the unexpected cameo of Jason Momoa as Hagrid.
In less lighthearted news, Rowling recently visited the set of the upcoming HBO Harry Potter remake, as HBO chairman and CEO Casey Bloys confirmed that the show would have an accelerated filming schedule for the first few seasons.
"The plan is to still try and get it — I don’t know if it’s going to be like stop shooting Season 1 on Friday and start Season 2 on Monday," said Bloys.
He quickly went on to add, "There’ll be a break in there, but we’re going to do whatever we can to not have a huge gap. For the kids, obviously, but also for viewers. You know, trying to not have massive gaps. It is a big show, lots of special effects, obviously, massive operation, but we’re going to do what we can."
This decision is intended to prevent the young cast from aging out of their roles, a risk HBO hopes to avoid by moving faster than a traditional television production timeline.
Francesca Gardiner (His Dark Materials), is the showrunner of the upcoming reboot and also wrote the pilot.
Newcomers Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout, and Arabella Stanton will step into the legendary roles of Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, respectively.
They'll be joined by an impressive supporting cast: John Lithgow will portray Albus Dumbledore, Essiedu as Snape, Janet McTeer will play Professor McGonagall, Nick Frost joins as Hagrid, Luke Thallon as Quirrell, and Paul Whitehouse as Filch.
Though a release date has not yet been confirmed, HBO is assuring fans that this adaptation will remain deeply loyal to J.K. Rowling’s original book series.