The year 2026 started with a bang for Saturday Night Live with a pre-taped sketch that generated social media moments right after it was aired, bringing together the magical world of Harry Potter and the passionate and homoerotically charged atmosphere of the popular sports drama series Heated Rivalry. Titled “Heated Wizardry,” this was part of the January 17th episode of SNL, which was hosted by Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard.
None of us saw this coming, and now we can’t unsee it
The parody imagines how the forthcoming Harry Potter television series remake might play out if it were to be “hastily rewritten” in order to cash in on the popularity of the hockey romance about enemies who fall in love, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov. Such a ridiculous mash-up of the worlds of magic and sports is knowingly so.
Wolfhard is paired up with SNL cast member Ben Marshall as Ron Weasley, recasting these characters not as the loyal and trusty sidekicks but as bitter nemeses, forced to live in the same general area as one another, which is not necessarily an innocuous situation. This sketch is fully embracing the parallel, to the point of abandoning ice rink reality for something they themselves call “semi-n— Quidditch action,” Harry expelliarmuses in a way which is not necessarily expelliarmusing.
It is in one of the most suggestive points of the sketch that the SNL makes one of the most biting meta-jabs of the night. A disclaimer pops up on screen that reads, “I am not a part of this.” This serves as the punchline but also as a reference to the off-stage problems of J.K. Rowling.
However, the moment that became viral for “The Skit” is the sudden appearance of Jason Momoa as Rubeus Hagrid. As Harry’s “happily b” sidekick and “groundskeeper,” Momoa steals the show as Harry and Ron attempt awkwardly to come out to him. Hagrid interrupts them suddenly and declares, “You’re a h—, Harry.” This particular scene has already become viral, with thousands of memes already circulating in cyberspace. Momoa continues: “Ron should be named ‘Neville’ because he was ‘one long bottom,’” while Harry and Ron affectionately nickname Hagrid “an old queen.”
In addition to Heated Wizardry, this episode was also a quiet reunion for Stranger Things. During Wolfhard’s opening monologue, he was joined by fellow Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin, as well as Gaten Matarazzo, all three laughing about growing up in the public eye and being ready for adult themes. McLaughlin later appeared in the actual wizard sketch. In lampooning the “prestige steaminess” of today’s sports dramas, as well as recutting Potter nostalgia with no qualms, Saturday Night Live produced a video that was, by its very nature, meant to go viral. As of this morning, the “Wand Growth” video has already accumulated more than 15 million views on X, and it’s fair to say that whenever SNL decides to ride the chaos that is the internet, they can count on fans being right there with them.
