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HBO’s Harry Potter Officially Confirms the Biggest Change From the Movies

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Harry Potter is a series that is full of iconic imagery and distinctive marks scattered all over the Wizarding World. But there’s one above all else that has become utterly synonymous with the Boy Who Lived from the very beginning, the one telltale sign that Harry Potter is indeed the one who vanquished the Dark Lord, He Who Must Not Be Named, and lived to tell the tale. And now, one of the franchise’s most famous images is getting a noticeable makeover.

HBO’s adaptation of J.K. Rowling‘s beloved novels will debut on Christmas Day, and the network has just dropped its clearest look yet at Dominic McLaughlin’s redesigned scar, confirming that the new Harry Potter will look distinctly different from Daniel Radcliffe‘s Boy Who Lived. The latest version of the scar appeared prominently in promotional material for this year’s Back to Hogwarts celebration.

Radcliffe’s scar in the Warner Bros. movies was a relatively clean and precise lightning bolt — to be honest, it looked like it had just been drawn on with a pencil — consisting of three sharp, straight lines, but McLaughlin’s version is considerably rougher. The new scar is jagged and uneven, resembling an actual wound rather than a neatly drawn lightning symbol.

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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Personality Quiz
Which Sci-Fi Hero Are You Most Like?
Paul Atreides · Captain Kirk · Princess Leia · Ellen Ripley · Max Rockatansky

Five iconic heroes. Five completely different ways of facing an impossible universe. One of them shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of refusing to back down. Eight questions will tell you which one.

🏜️Paul Atreides

🖖Capt. Kirk

Princess Leia

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🔦Ellen Ripley

🔥Max Rockatansky

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01

How do you lead when the stakes couldn’t be higher?
The way you lead under pressure is the most honest thing about you.





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02

What is your greatest strength in a crisis?
The quality that keeps you alive when everything else fails.





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03

What is the thing you’d sacrifice everything else for?
Your deepest motivation is your truest compass.





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04

How do you relate to the people around you?
Who you are to others under pressure is who you really are.





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05

You’re facing a threat that no one else believes is real. What do you do?
How you respond when you’re the only one who sees it defines everything.





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06

What has your heroism cost you personally?
Every hero pays. The question is what — and whether they’d pay it again.





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07

How do you feel about the rules of the world you’re in?
Every hero has a relationship with the system. What’s yours?





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08

When everything is on the line, what keeps you going?
The answer is the most honest thing about you.





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Your Hero Has Been Identified
Your Sci-Fi Hero Is…

Your answers point to the iconic sci-fi hero who shares your instincts, your values, and your particular way of facing the impossible.

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Arrakis · Dune

Paul Atreides

You carry a weight most people would crumble under — the knowledge of what you’re capable of, and the burden of what you might have to become.

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  • You see further ahead than others and you plan accordingly, even when the vision frightens you.
  • You are driven by loyalty to your people and a sense of destiny you didn’t ask for but can’t escape.
  • Paul Atreides is not simply a hero — he is someone who understands the cost of power and chooses to bear it anyway.
  • That gravity, that willingness to carry what others won’t, is exactly you.


USS Enterprise · Star Trek

Captain Kirk

You lead with instinct, warmth, and an absolute refusal to accept a no-win scenario — because you’ve always believed there’s a third option nobody else has thought of yet.

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  • You take the mission seriously without ever taking yourself too seriously.
  • Your crew would follow you anywhere, not because you demand it, but because you’ve earned it.
  • Kirk’s genius isn’t tactical — it’s human. He reads people, bends rules with purpose, and wills outcomes into existence through sheer conviction.
  • That combination of warmth, audacity, and relentless optimism is unmistakably yours.


The Rebellion · Star Wars

Princess Leia

You are the kind of person who holds the line when everyone else is losing faith — not because you’re fearless, but because giving up simply isn’t something you’re capable of.

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  • You lead through conviction. Your voice carries because your belief is unshakeable.
  • You gave up everything ordinary the moment you chose the cause, and you’ve never looked back.
  • Leia is not a supporting character in her own story — she is the moral centre of the entire rebellion.
  • That same fierce, principled, unbreakable core is what defines you.


The Nostromo · Alien

Ellen Ripley

You are not reckless, not grandiose, and not particularly interested in being anyone’s hero — you just refuse to stop when it matters.

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  • You see threats clearly, you document the truth even when no one listens, and when the time comes you handle it yourself.
  • Ripley’s heroism is earned, not performed. She doesn’t have a speech — she has a flamethrower and a plan.
  • You share her composure under the worst possible pressure, and her refusal to pretend the monster isn’t there.
  • When it counts, you don’t flinch. That’s everything.


The Wasteland · Mad Max

Max Rockatansky

You have been through fire that would break most people — and what came out the other side is something the world underestimates at its peril.

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  • You don’t ask for help, don’t need validation, and don’t wait for anyone to tell you the rules no longer apply.
  • Your loyalty, when it finally arrives, is absolute — but it’s earned in silence and tested in action, not in words.
  • Max is not a nihilist. He is someone who lost everything and found, against his will, that he still has something worth protecting.
  • That bruised, stubborn, ultimately human core is exactly yours.

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Why Does Harry Potter Have His Scar?

The scar is much more than a distinguishing feature for Harry. As a baby, he survived Lord Voldemort’s attempt to murder him with the Killing Curse after his mother Lily sacrificed herself to protect him. Voldemort’s curse rebounded, destroying his body and leaving Harry with the lightning-shaped mark on his forehead. Harry spends the first decade of his life believing the Dursleys’ lie that his parents died in a car crash and that the scar came from the accident. It’s only after Hagrid arrives that Harry learns what actually happened.

The redesigned scar has already been visible in footage from HBO’s adaptation, including scenes featuring McLaughlin’s Harry at his Muggle school and travelling through London with. Aunt Petunia’s book-accurate and hilariously bad haircutting skills conveniently hide portions of it in some scenes, but other shots provide a much clearer look.

Fans will get another look at the series during the annual Back to Hogwarts celebration on September 1, ahead of Harry Potter’s premiere on HBO on December 25, 2026.


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Release Date

2026 – 2026

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Showrunner

Francisca Gardiner

Directors
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Mark Mylod

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