2022 LEGO Harry Potter speculations…

The last four years have given us some impressive LEGO Harry Potter sets, and it is hard to imagine that to stop in 2022. In fact, four new sets are due to hit the shops in a few days. But will we get more? Rumours say so. I’m not presenting any such rumours here, but rather the thoughts I formed over the Christmas break, which I never got around to write down till now…

History of my speculation

Since the revival of the Harry Potter theme in 2018 (the previous wave had finished in 2011), we’ve been getting a lot of Harry Potter sets.

In early 2019, I speculated that they brought it back for a three-year schedule, which they seem to use for many themes. Themes like Chima, Nexo Knights, Exo Force, Dimensions, Friends Elves, etc. were all planned for three year – though some got canned before the final year.

It seemed to follow the schedule pretty well – 2018 focusing on the first two books/movies and 2019 on the next two books/movies. I expected 2020 would round it up covering the last three books/four movies – they are less child friendly and I didn’t expect many sets for each of those movies. We ended up with sets covering mainly books 5 and 6 – but not a single one representing The Deathly Hallows, while the 4 Privet Drive set took us back to the early movies.

With the 2021 Anniversary sets – LEGO started from a blank, which does explain the new style where Hogwarts is now highly modular which many refer to as a dollhouse style. It seems like they had planned to finish the series after 2020, but the theme must have sold well – and it was indeed listed as one of top five best-selling themes in the latest LEGO Annual Report.

It did leave me somewhat concerned that the Anniversary year would be a one-off with the theme going back into hibernation afterwards, as sets from the Fantastic Beast movies doesn’t seem to drive sufficient sales to keep the theme going. But then we heard about the four March sets, so it seems like we’re in for another great LEGO Harry Potter year.

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But my speculations haven’t just been about the three-year cycle or when the theme might end. The last few years, I’ve tried to guess what sets that might be coming.

I acknowledge this “guesswork” is way too late. My 2020 predictions were posted in July 2019 (you can see this post about how well that went) while my speculations about 2021 wasn’t posted till early February 2021 (you can see that post here). This year, I’m even later – though my draft list has been around since I thought (deeply) about it over the Christmas break. I’ll blame work for the lateness in writing this up.

The timing now also overlaps with a lot of rumours of what the new sets will include, some speculative, but also some that appear pretty firm – very, very firm actually (but I generally don’t post about leaked information here). In this post I haven’t taken regard to any “rumours” when presenting my thoughts from around Christmas.

2022 predictions

Of course, we have already seen four sets revealed for a 1 March release – watch out for my early reviews of those in the next few days. So no point in trying to predict those – and that we got a March series of sets, did caught me by surprise.

One of the March sets – the Hospital Wing – continue the doll-house series. It is very different from the 2018-2020 style of Hogwarts sets, but I love how fans have been building their own rooms (see some great examples here). I therefore expected some of the mid year sets to expand further on the Anniversary series of Hogwarts. And I felt it would be natural to expand on Hogsmeade too. Those two ideas were driving factors behind my selection of ideas below.

Based on previous years, I expect the mid-year series to include about 4-5 minifigure sets and up to two “display” type sets, maybe with another two minifigure scale sets around September to coincide with “Back to Hogwarts” day. As usual, they would come at different price points.

The anniversary sets in 2021 focused on the first two books, but did also include Hogsmeade from the Prisoner of Azkaban. I do think we will continue with more sets from the third book – (noting we’ve already seen the Hospital Wing sets coming in March this year) as well as the forth book: The Goblet of Fire. The 2021 Anniversary sets linked nicely back to the some of the original sets 20 years ago, and I could imagine that would continue with some remakes of older sets. But let’s get to my list:

Hogwarts: Defence against Dark Arts

Small set: 16 stud wide room for Hogwarts representing Professor Lupin’s Classroom. Basically a modern remake of the 2004 set 4752 in the new modular Hogwarts design. Minifigures could include: Professor Lupin, Neville Longbottom, Snape/boggart.

Hagrid’s Care of Magical Creatures lesson

Small set: Small grass field with fence on one side and small tree – the perfect setting for Hagrid to give his lesson. Minifigures could include: Buckbeak as well as Harry Potter, Hagrid and Draco Malfoy (with an apple as per the movie to please the drapple fans). It should also include a copy of the Monster Book of Monsters.

Hogwarts: The Prison Tower

Medium set: A remake of the 2004 set “Sirius Black’s Escape” (4753) to complement the Buckbeak set above and Hospital Wing set from the March release. The main feature should be Sirius Black’s in his prison tower, but it could also on the lower level have the statue hiding the secret passage to Hogsmeade (to link with the Hogsmeade sets). Minifigures could include: Harry Potter, Sirius Black as well as Fred and George Weasley (giving Harry the Marauders map).

Hogsmeade: The Shrieking Shack

Medium set: To supplement last year’s Hogsmeade set (76388), which was one of my favourites, I could imagine a remake of the 2004 set, though just with the Shrieking Shack. Minifigures could include: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew Wormtail and Professor Snape. I wonder if such as set would look anywhere like my version, which I wrote about here.

It could also maybe be a larger set – if bundled with another Hogsmeade building, for example Zonko’s joke shop.

Tri-wizard tournament: The Third Challenge – The Mace

Medium/large set: I have long wanted to see the third challenge at the Tri-wizard tournament be turned into a set. It could include some cool features like moving hedges, with the contestants and monsters like spiders and boggarts. At one end, spectators (head of schools) will be watching who to touch the trophy first. Minifigures could include: Harry Potter, Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, a dementor/boggart, Professor Dumbledore, Professor Moody and Igor Karkaroff (a remake of him is long overdue – last version was in 2005!).

Hogwarts: The library

Large set: This set focuses on some of the scenes from The Goblet of Fire. Long overdue is a decent library (including librarian), where Harry and Hermione can look for ways to stay under water for an hour. It should also include a room with the Goblet of Fire, a closet where Rita Skeeter can interview Harry Potter, and Snape’s potion storeroom where Dobby found gillyweed for Harry. To make it a large set, it could also feature Dumbledore’s office and/or the Prefects bathroom, though both were in the Clocktower set from 2019. So I’d rather go with the Owlery, where Harry can ask Cho if she want to be his date for the Yule Ball. Minifigures could include: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Cho Chang, Dobby, Madam Irma Pince (the Librarian), Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore.

Hogwarts Express w. Hogsmeade station

Large set: Basically an updated version of Hogwarts Express, which has been around since 2018. I don’t expect the train to be too different, but maybe the would opt for a motorised version this time. And it could be made with Hogsmeade station rather than Kings Cross, to tie in with last year’s Hogsmeade set. Minifigures could include Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Train driver, Professor Lupin and a dementor.

What else?

Beyond the minifigure scaled sets listed above, I would expect a “display” set or two. I would think one of them would be a kinetic model like the recent Hedwig and Fawkes models. Maybe a a snitch? I would also expect LEGO to make a LEGO Harry Potter advent calendar again this year.

And then we have had a large direct-to-consumers (D2C) exclusive Harry Potter set in 2018, 2020 and 2021. I think they have sold so well that another will come later in the year. It could be a much sought after Diagon Alley extension. To be honest, I have no other good ideas.

If we do get a Diagon Alley set, I think Gringotts will be the focal point as in my Diagon Alley display.

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That was all! Looking at the rumours circulating, I can see I probably haven’t been right in many predictions, but some could be spot on. But we’ll have to wait a bit longer till we know for sure.

Till then, Build the Magic!