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HBO has been lifting the veil on its Harry Potter TV show quite a bit in the past couple of weeks, providing first looks at several major characters. Many of these came from the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone trailer, which revealed John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, and Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, to name but a few. Since then, more glimpses of the series have arrived thanks to HBO Max’s early behind-the-scenes documentary, Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic.
The Harry Potter doc revealed several new details and looks at things, with a focus on the more artistic and technical sides of things, such as the impressive animatronics being used, including creatures that weren’t in the movies, like flobberworms and fire crabs. However, it did also feature several cast members too, and that seemingly includes the first look at Luke Thallon as Professor Quirinus Quirrell, as spotted by u/tvvofaced on Reddit [h/t Wizarding World Direct on X]:
Thanks to the keen eye of a Reddit user, we’ve probably had our first look at Professor Quirrell in the HARRY POTTER TV series
He's portrayed by Luke Thallon in the HBO series and it really looks like him!
(via u/tvvofaced) pic.twitter.com/l7cFTNatkG
— Wizarding World Direct (@WW_Direct) April 7, 2026
How The First Look At Professor Quirrell Avoids A Harry Potter Plot Hole
Assuming that this is indeed Quirrell, and it certainly looks a lot like the actor, then it creates an interesting change to the movies. The actor is wearing what looks like the character’s costume, with the purple tie in particular keeping with what you’d expect to see him in, but the one thing missing is his turban. That is, of course, what masks the fact that Lord Voldemort is living rent-free in the back of his head.
There’s no problem with him wearing it at Hogwarts, but the movies ran into trouble by having Quirrell in his turban during his first meeting with Harry at The Leaky Cauldron. The presence of it there certainly at least implied that he was already Voldemort’s vessel at that point, and yet, he was able to shake Harry’s hand. Given that he couldn’t touch him at the end of The Philosopher’s Stone due to Lily’s love protection, then he shouldn’t have been able to in this scene, either.
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This was a deviation from the books. While he is a servant of the Dark Lord at that point, there is no mention of the turban in the scene at The Leaky Cauldron, and while that technically doesn’t mean he wasn’t wearing it, the context of his next appearance clearly suggests he wasn’t. When Harry sees him again in Hogwarts’ Great Hall, he specifically notes, “He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.” Quirrell himself also makes it apparent that Voldemort only took over part of him after the events at the Cauldron, as he says in their climactic scene:
“When I failed to steal the Stone from Gringotts, he was most displeased. He punished me… decided he would have to keep a closer watch on me…”
If this is the Diagon Alley set – which would make some sense, given it’s one that the documentary features a fair bit – then it does seem as though the TV show is undoing this change to Quirrell, and thus avoiding running into a plot hole. The remake is striving to be more accurate to the books than the movies were, and include details that were changed or left out, and this is just another example of that.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone releases Christmas 2026 on HBO and HBO Max.
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