Hogwarts Legacy is Avalanche’s upcoming RPG set in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, taking place around a century before the events of the books. Based on its trailer, players will be taking on the role of a Hogwarts student in the late 1800s as they take classes, make new friends, explore the grounds, and take care of fantastic beasts.
Since Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the late 19th century there has been some speculation among Harry Potter fans that the game could feature Albus Dumbledore as an NPC, who would have been a student at Hogwarts around that time. However, there’s evidence to suggest that Hogwarts Legacy won’t include Dumbledore, and there are also reasons that could be a good thing for the new game.
So far, it has only been revealed that Hogwarts Legacy takes place at some point in the late 1800s, leaving a timespan of several decades in which the player could find themselves starting at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Since Dumbledore is well over 100 years old at the time the Harry Potter books are set, however, some fans have been hopeful that he might be included as a student NPC in the game.
If Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the 1890s, it’s certainly possible that Albus Dumbledore could make an appearance. Dumbledore first arrived at Hogwarts in 1892, and his arrival was surrounded by rumors that indicate that most students would have been aware of his presence. Albus Dumbledore’s father, Percival Dumbledore, had been imprisoned in Azkaban after attacking three Muggle boys who were assaulting Albus’ sister Ariana. She, aged just 6, had been seen practicing underage magic, and the attack left her traumatized for life and her magic dangerously unstable.
When Albus arrived at Hogwarts, some students mistakenly believed that he also harbored anti-Muggle sentiments, with some judging him for it and others believing that by expressing anti-Muggle sentiments themselves they might be able to get into his good books. By his seventh year, however, Albus Dumbledore was Head Boy and considered one of the most skilled young wizards to pass through the school.
All of this makes it quite likely that, if Hogwarts Legacy takes place in the 1890s, Albus Dumbledore will be hard to miss. However, Dumbledore’s considerable presence at Hogwarts in the 1890s from his controversial introduction to his victorious exit could make it less likely that Hogwarts Legacy will take place during the 1890s at all.
The reason Avalanche might want to avoid Dumbledore entirely is simple: he comes with too much baggage. The fact that Hogwarts Legacy is already set a century before the Harry Potter books indicates that the studio wants to tell a story which isn’t bogged down by the main events of the books and films. Some of the earliest main events in the franchise begin with Dumbledore himself, who is one of the oldest characters in the original stories. Setting the game during Dumbledore’s time at Hogwarts would also likely necessitate the introduction of several other characters that it’s confirmed Dumbledore met during his school years. This includes some characters who would go on to make appearances in the Harry Potter stories such as Elphias Doge and Bathilda Bagshot.
Dumbledore’s fate is fixed, as well as one of the most famous fates in the entire franchise. This would make it difficult to create a version of Dumbledore for the RPG who could actually be influenced by the player. Dumbledore’s presence would also likely encourage the player to consider their Hogwarts Legacy character’s story relative to Harry’s story, a direct comparison Avalanche likely wants to avoid when possible so that its storytelling can flourish in its own right.
Not only that, but setting the game in the 1890s could cause problems that are independent of Dumbledore. One event in 1899, Dumbledore’s final year at Hogwarts, saw time dilation across the Wizarding World after a Ministry of Magic time travel experiment went wrong, killing a Ministry Unspeakable and causing a number of Wizards and Witches to be “un-born.” Hogwarts Legacy might want to avoid overlap with this event for a good reason. The use of time travel in the Wizarding World has often raised questions from among the fans, so it seems more likely that Avalanche will simply choose to set its new game safely before the turn of the century to avoid addressing it.
For similar reasons, it seems likely that Avalanche Software will set Hogwarts Legacy before the 1890s. This would avoid the possibility of characters like Albus Dumbledore getting in the way of the game’s story or worse, being involved in it to the extent that they outshine the new characters Avalanche is trying to develop. If Dumbledore does appear in Hogwarts Legacy, it’s more likely that he will appear as a younger students towards the end of the player’s time at Hogwarts, appearing as a cameo more than a character in his own right. Hogwarts Legacy will have to more than avoid recognizable characters, however, if the game is going to tell a story which is able to step out of the main franchise’s shadow.
Hogwarts’ Headmaster in Hogwarts Legacy also cannot be a stand in for Dumbledore without presenting several of the same risks as including Dumbledore himself. Fortunately the game takes place around the same time that Phineas Nigellus Black, Hogwarts’ least popular Headmaster, was in charge. If Black is Headmaster in Hogwarts Legacy, he could help set a very different tone to the position of Headmaster than its benevolent portrayal in most of Harry Potter, and could be a great step on the road towards creating an original story in the Wizarding World rather than recreating the story of Harry Potter in a different time period.
Hogwarts Legacy launches in 2022 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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