New Harry Potter Series Set Photos Just Fixed a Huge Dumbledore Plot Hole Years Later

We’ve finally been given our first glimpse at the new Albus Dumbledore from HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series, and his appearance seems to solve a huge plot hole that caused a stir during the previous movie franchise. John Lithgow was cast as the new Dumbledore in April 2025, taking over the role from the likes of the late Richard Harris and Michael Gambon, and Jude Law from the Fantastic Beasts film series. Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, is a skilled mentor to Harry Potter, and the HBO series will team them up again.

The first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is primarily set in 1991, with the opening of the movie taking place in 1980. In this opening, Dumbledore appeared in stereotypical wizard robes, which became a point of contention when Jude Law made his debut as a suited and suave Dumbledore in the Fantastic Beasts movies, with The Secrets of Dumbledore set in 1932, only 38 years beforehand. Viewers have been wondering when Dumbledore traded out the fashion-forward suits for the thick draping robes, but John Lithgow’s new garbs in HBO’s Harry Potter is solving this plot hole.

How John Lithgow’s Dumbledore Changes The Original For The Better

Lithgow’s Dumbledore is trading in the thick robes for a deep blue trench coat with a classical suit underneath – shirt, trousers, and waistcoat included. While he also has the long white beard that is reminiscent of the one sported by Harris and Gambon’s Dumbledores, Lithgow’s version seems to be far more fashion conscious, which means that he might have been the perfect future iteration of Jude Law’s wizard school headmaster. His patterned clothes with shades of blue and red are one of the first major changes in the HBO series from the previous Harry Potter movies.

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There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the development of the new Harry Potter TV series anyway, given author J. K. Rowling’s outspoken and divisive views. With the ongoing release of set photos, however, some have questioned why the series is being produced at all, as many costumes and character designs seem to be an exact remake of their theatrical predecessors. The designs for the Hogwarts school uniforms, Nick Frost’s Hagrid, and more could have been borrowed from the Harry Potter movies’ wardrobe, but Lithgow’s Dumbledore is vastly different.

We haven’t yet caught glimpses of the likes of Paapa Essiedu’s Severus Snape, Janet McTeer’s Minerva McGonagall, or indeed the Dark Lord, Voldemort, himself, whose casting hasn’t yet been announced. It remains to be seen just how successful the upcoming Harry Potter series will be, but the first season of eight episodes is expected to hit HBO in 2027, with the series set to span a full decade. After these Dumbledore set photos, we’re more excited for the series, and can’t wait to see John Lithgow in action.

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