Does LEGO Harry Potter kind of hate Ron Weasley?

The LEGO Harry Potter January 2026 wave exposes a long-running injustice against a certain redhead in hand-me-down robes...

Looking ahead to the LEGO Harry Potter January 2026 wave, there are a few sets where you might expect Ron Weasley to make an appearance but he doesn't. He visits the Lovegood house alongside Harry and Hermione in both the book and film, but doesn't feature in 76467 Luna Lovegood's House. He's a fellow Gryffindor, but doesn't appear as part of the trio in 76460 Hogwarts Castle: Sorting Hat Ceremony.

In fact, the only set where he appears that Hermione doesn't is 76470 Enchanted Flying Ford Anglia, which recreates a scene Hermione isn't in. As a one-off in this wave, his absence in certain sets might be a simple anomaly – but it's not the first time it's happened.

Going back to past sets, Ron is also absent from 76453 Malfoy Manor (a scene where he played a pivotal role in rescuing Hermione) that was released earlier this year. Plus, you can't forget 76393 Harry Potter & Hermione Granger, where the other two members of the Golden Trio got upscaled versions of their minifigures.

So what does this actually mean? Does the LEGO Harry Potter theme just hate Ron Weasley?

In a word, no. Brickset's figures on the number of minifigures shows that Hermione and Ron have 50 minifigures a piece throughout the lifetime of the theme, compared to Harry's 130 minifigures. Rather, it suggests something about what goes into selecting characters to include in LEGO sets.

In the Golden Trio, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all good friends, but Harry and Ron were the original duo, and they do seem to be closer in a lot of ways. However, in terms of marketing, when you need to pick just two characters to appear, it's probably wise from a marketing standpoint to choose a boy and a girl, to appeal to both female and male builders and kids.

That means that when you have an ensemble cast of minifigures like in 76467 Luna Lovegood's House and 76453 Malfoy Manor and the designers are perhaps limited in minifigures due to cost or overcrowding, it's possible that Ron is getting the boot to make room for Hermione or arguably even Luna. That means there's more diversity in the sets, offering minifigures for young girls to play with and look up to, as well as young boys.

All the way back in 2021, the LEGO Group committed to removing gender bias from its toys and marketing, promising to test its products on boys and girls and to 'include more female role models'.

“We’re testing everything on boys and girls, and including more female role models," said CMO Julia Goldin at the time. "Our job now is to encourage boys and girls who want to play with sets that may have traditionally been seen as ‘not for them’.”

While LEGO Harry Potter is not necessarily one of those themes which is not traditionally for girls, the logic could certainly still apply.

Indeed, just earlier this year, Julia reiterated the LEGO Group's commitment to continuing to show up for young girls, speaking around the launch of the company's collaboration with TIME to create the first-ever Girls of the Year list: "When girls don’t see it, they don’t believe it – the world risks missing out on the next big breakthrough. There’s no stopping what girls can build."

We've just been speculating about the decisions that go into minifigure selection here, and there's probably a lot more to it than even what we've laid out here. Plus, it's worth noting that there are sets where Harry and Ron appear without any female minifigures – although usually that's only for scenes where it really would make no sense for others to appear.

Nonetheless, it's interesting to play LEGO designer and speculate about what magic means some characters appear where others don't.

Support the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO sets using our affiliate links, and read more about the wider issues surrounding LEGO Harry Potter.