The wizarding world of Harry Potter often asks what people would do when given incredible power. In the Harry Potter world, every wizard is expected to attend a wizarding school and learn to master their innate magical abilities. Whether they use those powers for good or wield magic for their own gain is another question. Fans looking forward to Harry Potter: Hogwarts Legacy want to know if they'll get to answer this question for themselves. It only seems right that a game centered on students at Hogwarts would also let players decide if their custom characters will choose to rein in their own magic or dabble in dark techniques.
A Hogwarts Legacy trailer heavily suggests that the game involves a morality system. If that's the case, it follows that players' moral choices will lead to them either becoming a good wizard or a dark wizard. A Reddit poll recently found that quite a few fans are interested in playing as dark wizards, so one wonders if Avalanche Software is aware of this side of the fandom and intends to incorporate dark wizardry into Hogwarts Legacy. While it seems likely that dark techniques will appear in Hogwarts Legacy, odds are that players won't have the ability to become the megalomaniacal, absurdly powerful type of dark wizard that often serves as a Harry Potter antagonist.
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Elements of the Wizarding World's dark side will crop up in Hogwarts Legacy. Aside from the obvious inclusion of dark wizards as antagonists, Hogwarts itself doesn't have a spotless past. Salazar Slytherin's influence on Hogwarts often results in sinister parts of the castle where students might discover terrible secrets or items of power that drive them toward darkness. Places like the Hogwarts library's Restricted Section house information about the Dark Arts that could tantalize students who are drawn to the notion of power.
However, none of these things seem likely to result in the Hogwarts Legacy protagonist becoming a true villain. After all, that protagonist is clearly still meant to be the hero of the story. Hogwarts Legacy trailers make it clear that players will contend with dark wizards, whether the protagonist is good or not. If there's a witch or wizard serving as Hogwarts Legacy's main villain, it would be impractical for Avalanche Software to let players create a character that's even more malicious and villainous than whatever force they'll be pitted against.
Additionally, Hogwarts Legacy is about young students above all. Although Tom Riddle was a malevolent force even in his adolescence, he is an outlier in the world of Harry Potter. Hogwarts Legacy takes place at a time where player characters are still meant to be figuring out their place in the world. It's unlikely that they'd have any Machiavellian scheme for greatness via the Dark Arts in the same way that Tom Riddle did. Instead, Hogwarts Legacy seems intent on guiding player characters through their wizarding education and letting players begin to chart their character's future, rather than putting a concrete evil destiny in place.
Of course, there's still room for Hogwarts Legacy to offer players a taste of the Dark Arts and tempt them with power and prestige. The Harry Potter franchise already offers a perfect template for such a character arc. Draco Malfoy famously inherited a lot of knowledge about Lord Voldemort and the Dark Arts from his father, the powerful dark wizard Lucius Malfoy. The wealth and privilege of the Malfoy family, alongside connections to the Dark Arts, enabled Draco to become an important minor antagonist for much of the Harry Potter series.
In Hogwarts Legacy, a dark witch or wizard might lead a school life much like Draco's. Rather than building an empire on magical power, players might be able to build a network at Hogwarts based on social power. A dark character in Hogwarts Legacy could bully other students into submission or compliance, intimidating them with the Dark Arts and gaining certain tools or resources thanks to this kind of networking and extortion. Much like how Draco harassed his fellow students with the help of several cronies, a Dark player character could rule at least a portion of Hogwarts in Hogwarts Legacy, even if they can't try to take over the Wizarding World.
That version of a dark wizard opens plenty of doorways. For instance, one imagines that building relationships with Hogwarts' teachers will be an important part of Hogwarts Legacy. With a dark character, players might be in contention with teachers that want to shut down a student and punish them for their behavior. Similarly, students from other Houses might start groups that can rival the players, creating Bully-esque factions in Hogwarts Legacy that enable all kinds of social dynamics throughout Hogwarts. Dark wizards and witches might have to fight to protect their power – and good characters might have to thwart students drawn toward the Dark Arts.
It's possible that Avalanche Studios ultimately chooses to keep the Dark Arts out of the hands of Hogwarts Legacy players, but that'd be a shame. There's some fantastic storytelling options available to Hogwarts Legacy players enabled by the presence of dark magic. Hogwarts Legacy has a lot to do with uncovering secrets and lost knowledge, so it only seems right that players uncover parts of the Dark Arts in the process. Tons of character development opportunities lie in the player deciding what to do with knowledge of the Dark Arts.
Fans' questions about the Dark Arts indicate how much remains to be revealed about Hogwarts Legacy. In spite of a solid trailer explaining the themes of the game, Avalanche hasn't revealed much. Even so, fans of the Harry Potter IP know it's in good hands, based on the developers' careful attention to the timeline when designing the grounds of Hogwarts. If Avalanche is so aware of the geographical components of Harry Potter, then ideally it's aware of the magical components as well. Although Hogwarts Legacy players may not get to become dark lords of the Wizarding World, there's plenty of room for dark characters in Hogwarts Legacy.
Hogwarts Legacy is in development for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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