I Hope Harry Potter's TV Remake Fixes My Biggest Problem With Voldemort's Backstory

I’ve long had an issue with Voldemort’s backstory, but I’m hoping the upcoming Harry Potter remake can fix it. Every villain needs a great origin story, and Voldemort’s was most certainly intriguing. The details of his parents’ meeting and marriage were explored extensively in the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book, and these sequences in the Pensieve have long been among my favorites in the series. However, the simplistic explanation for Voldemort’s evilness has never sat quite right with me—but this could be an easy fix for the Harry Potter TV show.




In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry takes trips into the Pensieve to learn all about Voldemort’s past. Here, he saw the villain’s mother, Merope Gaunt, and witnessed her desperate obsession with a local Muggle man, Tom Riddle. Dumbledore explained that Merope used a love potion on Riddle, tricking the man into marrying and having a child with her. When Voldemort’s father stopped getting his daily dose, he left the pregnant Merope, and the woman died from a broken heart after birthing her son. It’s a tragic tale, but the implication of this Harry Potter story is a bit jarring.


Voldemort’s Backstory In The Harry Potter Books Has A Problematic Underlying Message

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The idea here is that Voldemort is evil because of a profound lack of love in his life. He was conceived through deception, and rather than a loving marriage, the Riddles’ relationship was all about obsession. Though Voldemort wasn’t raised by his parents, the implication is that Merope’s crimes had magical consequences, which made her son an unfeeling, remorseless monster. This is meant to stand as a stark contrast against Harry. The Boy Who Lived was also raised an orphan, but he was brought into the world through love and sacrifice, which is why he is inherently good.

While I recognize the literary poetry of this villain-hero dynamic, it’s a rather problematic approach to Voldemort’s evil. There is already a stigma against those born through adverse circumstances, and Voldemort’s story only seems to reinforce this. The villain of Harry Potter being evil because his mother took magical advantage over his father is a somewhat oversimplified perspective on morality. I find it frustrating that a series that spends so much time exploring moral ambiguity would allow its primary villain no opportunity to be more than his circumstances.


Voldemort Would Be A More Interesting Villain If Harry Potter Made Him More Complex

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I don’t have a problem with Voldemort being inherently evil in Harry Potter. However, the negative stereotype his story seems to support could be cast aside with some added complexities to the villain’s character. It’s implied through Half-Blood Prince that Tom Riddle was evil from the very start. He was polite and charismatic, but he tormented his fellow orphans and killed animals from the time he was a small boy. Such characters are always terrifying, but it might be more interesting to see a time in Riddle’s life when he desired love and ultimately chose to cast it aside.

When he learned the truth of his circumstances, it would make sense that he himself would decide that this is why he has always had such dark impulses—to believe that his evil deeds aren’t his fault but his parents’.


This version of Voldemort’s character would still reinforce the idea that a person’s circumstances make it harder to be good, but it wouldn’t point the finger wholly at the crimes of his parents. I would love to see Riddle learn about his mother, hoping to discover that he had been loved and wanted. When he learned the truth of his circumstances, it would make sense that he himself would decide that this is why he has always had such dark impulses—to believe that his evil deeds aren’t his fault but his parents’. Of course, the ultimate truth would be that Voldemort alone is responsible for his evilness.

I Hope HBO’s Harry Potter Remake Fixes This Part Of Voldemort’s Origin Story

The Harry Potter TV Show Must Maintain The Books Themes On Morality (But Make Some Shifts)

Harry Potter Voldemort Death Eaters (1) (1)


The above scenario could very well already be the case in Harry Potter. After all, the books and movies never provided much of Voldemort’s perspective, and we never see his own thoughts on the circumstances of his birth. My hope is that this is an angle that HBO’s Harry Potter TV show would be able to dive into. With entire seasons dedicated to each Harry Potter book, it would be interesting to see an episode or two that take Riddle’s perspective as he learns about his past. We can see the smallest moment, in which it looks like the boy might turn things around until he chooses not to take responsibility for his actions.

Season 1 of the
Harry Potter
TV show is expected to premiere sometime near the end of 2026 or the beginning of 2027.


In this way, the Harry Potter series would add nuance to Voldemort’s story without changing his canon character. After all, what good is a new adaptation (especially one in which the author is participating) if it doesn’t add further context to the character described by the books? Lord Voldemort is an excellent villain, but Harry’s perspective creates a black-and-white view of morality that is never realistic. To reinforce the themes of Harry Potter, the upcoming TV show can prove that Voldemort is even more complex than he ever seemed before.