The reference points were readily identifiable: a chance meeting between characters from different worlds, a sport involving sticks and a flying round projectile whose nuances would be lost on the average American. Yep, Saturday Night Live was doing yet another Harry Potter sketch—but this time with a spicy twist.
As those descriptions—and the furtive glances exchanged by last night’s host, Finn Wolfhard, and the SNL cast member Ben Marshall, playing Potter and Ron Weasley—implied, a page-to-screen sensation of a more recent vintage was also being spoofed. Count SNL’s writers among the many HBO Max watchers who have jumped on the Heated Rivalry bandwagon, giving us the pretaped sketch “Heated Wizardry,” an elaborate, meme-ready mash-up of J. K. Rowling’s wizarding world and the streaming show based on Rachel Reid’s hockey-themed gay romance series.
For “heated Wizardry” to land, viewers had to have at least a passing familiarity with each story’s component parts: the enemies-turned-lovers arc of Reid’s protagonists, Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov; the broad strokes of Rowling’s boarding school for magical kids. Fans of the former could get a kick out of seeing Wolfhard and Marshall recreate the show’s signature, intensely physical scenes—complete with breathy whispers and strategically placed steam—while those in the know about the wizarding world would recognize the Hogwarts setting and the characters’ iconic looks.
