SNL parodies Heated Rivalry with Harry Potter skit, but not everyone is seeing the funny side
Finn Wolfhard and Ben Marshall are Harry Potter and Ron Weasley in SNL’s ‘Heated Wizardry’ skit. (YouTube/Saturday Night Live/NBC)
Queer ice hockey romance series Heated Rivalry has finally reached parodied-by-SNL levels of infamy, inspiring a Harry Potter skit on the notorious late night sketch show.
On Saturday’s (17 January) episode of Saturday Night Live, guest host Finn Wolfhard starred in a raunchy Heated Rivalry meets Harry Potter sketch, aptly named ‘Heated Wizardry’.
The skit saw the Stranger Things actor play bespectacled lead wizard Harry Potter, with SNL featured player Ben Marshall appearing as Potter’s very close friend, Ron Weasley.
The three-minute sketch traced the young wizards from their first meeting where they reach for the same wand, with a fairly easy joke following about wanting to see one another’s “wands”.
“The only thing hotter than ice hockey is Quidditch,” a voiceover announces, before Wolfhard is seen on a broomstick speeding off away from Marshall, seemingly naked with his bottom pixelated out. “Catch me if you can, Weasley,” he teases.
It’s a skit chocked full of innuendo and references to both Harry Potter and Heated Rivalry. In one scene, the pair appear under Potter’s invisibility cloak, with Potter asking Hermione (played by Chloe Fineman) what the spell is “to make something bigger”. In another, Potter texts Weasley in a similar fashion to Heated Rivalry’s Ilya and Shane, with the young wizard asking his pal to “Slytherin to my bum”.
‘Heated Wizardry’ was also jokingly referred to as a re-write of the upcoming, controversial HBO Harry Potter series, with the voiceover joshing that the series was re-made following the success of Heated Rivalry.
In one scene, Aquaman actor Jason Momoa appears as giant Hagrid, and riffs on the character’s popular line “You’re a wizard, Harry.”
“You’re a homo, Harry,” Momoa says, addressing Wolfhard.
Unlike the original Harry Potter series, the SNL skit made clear that the characters here are aged over 18. “Hogwarts is like college now, just to make that clear,” the voiceover continues.
While the skit has gone down a storm in certain internet circles – it racked up an impressive 1.9 million views on YouTube in just over 24 hours – some have criticised it.
Online, there is upset among some SNL viewers due to the skit mixing Heated Rivalry, a show which loudly celebrates the LGBTQ+ community, with Harry Potter, which is authored by JK Rowling, who is known for her ‘gender critical’ views on the transgender community.
That’s despite the skit appearing to nod to Rowling’s views on the community, with a quote attributed to the author appearing on screen, reading: “I am not a part of this.”
One viewer wrote on X, formerly Twitter that Rowling’s work “should never get any promotion from a happy, safe gay show”.
“The (unfunny) SNL Heated Rivalry x Harry Potter sketch is 100% part of a larger cultural project to allow people to watch the new HP series without guilt,” a second theorised.
Others have taken offense at a queer show like Heated Rivalry being used as a punchline. “I love living in a time where queerness is considered something hilarious,” one person wrote on X.
A small circle have also expressed upset at seeing Wolfhard play a queer character, considering many Stranger Things fans had yearned for his character, Mike Wheeler, to be gay on the show. This didn’t come to fruition with the Stranger Things finale at the beginning of the month.
'Heated RIVALRY' and then they put Ron instead of Harry's actual canon rival https://t.co/wITMU19ehX pic.twitter.com/GcJlh9MitP
— bats 🦇 (@batszboo) January 18, 2026
Yet the bulk of the backlash against ‘Heated Wizardry’ appears to be directed at the fact it centred on Harry and Ron, rather than Harry and his cannon rival, Draco Malfoy.
Harry and Draco are famously one of the most written about pairings in fan fiction, with the couple even acquiring a ‘ship’ name, ‘Drarry’.
“The worst part about this is that they’re promoting [Harry Potter] but also they made the rivalry between Harry and Ron and not…. Harry and Draco??? the canon rivals? Whatever,” one fan wrote.
“The concept of making a Heated Rivalry x Harry Potter SNL skit and it’s NOT DRARRY,” another moaned. “You took the rivalry out of the Heated Rivalry.”
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
