HBO Proves It’s Officially Throwing Petunia Dursley’s Potential Harry Potter Redemption Out The Window

The new trailer for HBO’s Harry Potter TV show makes it pretty clear that one character in particular won’t be getting that sought-after redemption. This is our very first look at the remake series, and, thankfully, HBO didn’t bother with a brief teaser or a title-page release-date announcement. It’s a full-on, two-minute trailer, and it’s already told us a great deal about what this version of Harry Potter will look like—from the Dursleys house to Hogwarts Castle and beyond.

Naturally, it all looks pretty different from what we are familiar with in the Harry Potter movies. This is a new cast, and the set design has its own unique flair. HBO also aims for its series to be faithful to the books, and the Harry Potter season 1 trailer already delivers in this regard. We got a couple of scenes that come straight from the books and weren’t in the movies. A perfect example is that first sequence, in which Bel Powley’s Petunia Dursley angrily reminds Harry (Dominic McLaughlin) that he isn’t special while cutting his hair.

In the Harry Potter books, it’s mentioned that Petunia once became so fed up with Harry’s impossibly messy hair that she cut it nearly to the scalp with kitchen scissors. HBO’s Harry Potter seems to have adopted this moment, using it to showcase just how terribly Petunia treated Harry. It’s a shifted perspective compared to the Harry Potter movies, leading her character in a somewhat different direction.

Petunia Dursley Is Much Worse In HBO’s Harry Potter Than She Was In The Movies

There was never any doubt in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone that Fiona Shaw’s Petunia resented Harry. She treated him with no kindness, by any means. Still, it was Vernon Dursley (played by Richard Griffiths in the films) who came across as overtly abusive. Harry’s aunt was more passive, ignoring and neglecting her nephew while she showered Dudley with sickening affection.

This sort of passiveness made it easier to give Petunia some grace later in the series when it’s revealed that she truly loved Lily once. A deleted scene from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 even sees Petunia remind Harry that, the day he lost his parents, she lost a sister. It allowed the character a curious sort of sympathy. It was thought that HBO’s Harry Potter could expand on this, but it doesn’t look as if that will be possible.

Powley’s version of Petunia is far from passive in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone trailer. Not only are her words razor sharp, but it’s clear that her aggressive work with those scissors is hurting Harry. As the moment ends, the young boy sits with his choppy haircut, tears welling in his eyes, as Petunia jabs the scissors threateningly toward his face. It’s both heartbreaking and enraging. If we see more such moments in the Harry Potter TV show, any sort of sympathy toward Petunia will be hard to manage.

The Harry Potter Show Has A Lot More Room To Explore The Complexities Of Petunia’s Character

While we certainly can’t expect a redemption arc for Petunia in the Harry Potter TV show, this project will have much more time to dive into the complexities of her character. J.K. Rowling’s books are all about complex moral duality, and Petunia is a great example. She begins in the books as completely despicable, and that never really goes away. However, Harry ultimately learns that there are reasons (though not excuses) for her behavior.

Petunia was profoundly jealous and resentful of Lily, but she still loved her. It made mourning extremely complicated, but Petunia didn’t have the emotional maturity to handle those feelings appropriately. She suppressed them, right along with her own secret desire to be special like Lily. We see repeatedly in Harry Potter that suppressed emotions ultimately burst out as aggression, violence, or abuse. Poor Harry, as Lily’s son, was the perfect target for Petunia’s rage.

Characters like Snape and Petunia, who both behaved terribly after Lily’s death, perfectly demonstrate how redeeming qualities and actions don’t necessarily equate redemption itself.

Once again, the reasons behind Petunia’s behaviors don’t redeem or excuse her. This character’s story serves an overarching point that Harry Potter repeatedly emphasizes—real villains are never just cut-and-dry evil. The Harry Potter movies just didn’t have enough time to build up Petunia’s story to convey those moral lessons, which is why that ultimately deleted scene felt like something it shouldn’t have been. Based on the new scenes in HBO’s Harry Potter trailer, however, the show will capture every bit of that nuance.