In the world of Harry Potter, there are so many characters that it’s almost hard to keep up with all of them. And if you’re like me, you sometimes want to know way more about a character because they seem important, but there’s barely any information shared about them.
That’s where this list comes in handy. So many great Harry Potter characters had major roles in the books, but due to page limits and story constraints, they didn’t get enough page time. From siblings to characters we never even saw, here are five (technically six) characters we wish had more page time in the novels.
Charlie Weasley
The first person who came to mind when I was putting this list together is Charlie Weasley, because… like, come on, it’s Charlie.
I would have put Bill, but fans recognize that he ends up married to Fleur. We don’t know much about him, but we do know he was very smart, worked at Gringotts, and had a decent life post-Hogwarts until the war, of course.
But Charlie? Now he’s an interesting Weasley I always wanted to dig deeper into. He’s someone who is actively involved with dragons in the Harry Potter world, so much so that he’s partially responsible for getting the dragons for the Triwizard Tournament and uses his connections in Romania and around the world to gain allies in the fight against Voldemort later in the series.
If there were any character I would have loved to see more of, it’s Charlie, and I'd have loved to learn more about his story. Why he became obsessed with dragons, how he got to where he was, and whether Hogwarts influenced that decision in any way — those are the stories that would have been amazing. I’m happy he’s been cast in the new Harry Potter show.
Ginny Weasley
I’ve gone on record saying that I think book Ginny Weasley is far better than movie Ginny Weasley, and I stand by that. The new HBO show has a chance to get Ginny and Ron right, as they were meant to be portrayed.
However, I wish we'd gotten more Ginny in the books. We see a lot of her development in the later books, but I would have loved to see more of her in the earlier books. She plays an important role in the trio later on, and it would have been more believable to see her interact with them more often.
Instead, we only see glimpses of her personality throughout the novels, rather than her being a much bigger, more active character in the earlier books. Either way, she’s still better written, but it would have been great to know her better.
Regulus Black
I have never heard of a character more important than Regulus Black, and yet, we never even see him in the books. He is not a physical force. We only really know how important he is through others' descriptions, memories, and hints and clues. Other than that, we know he's important to the central plot.
But you want to know how you make people care more about him? Making him a much more active part of the plot. In the books, we know that he made an incredible sacrifice, and we only really find out about it ages later from Kreacher, the house-elf that Regulus regularly interacted with. I would have loved to hear more about him from Sirius Black, or anyone else in that family, to really cement his legacy.
Cho Chang
Cho Chang was mostly there as a love interest for Harry and Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and then she appeared out of nowhere as someone important in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
I would have liked to see why Harry felt such a connection with her at first and the interactions that made it so, because it would have made the whole dating and romance thing that much more interesting. Instead, we were given her as just… kind of there, not really having as big an impact on the story as she should have. If we'd gotten to know her past, her personality, or even just how she was close to Harry, that would have been better than what we got.
Lily and James Potter
I would give anything to see more about Lily and James Potter, mainly when they were in school, to really establish their relationship and Lily’s interactions with Snape. Their parentage to Harry feels like a ghost throughout the novels, and it seems like it should matter more to the plot, but they only really appear a few times as ghosts.
If we'd been given more backstory from people who survived what happened back then, I think that would have been amazing. Or if Harry somehow found more of their memories and could revisit their past, we could better understand them as people. Anything added would have been better than what we were given. Just a little more would have gone a long way. Heck, even a flashback to the Marauders would be great.
You can read all the Harry Potter books now while we wait for the new series to premiere on HBO Max — and hopefully, we'll get more time with these characters on screen than on paper.
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