Image: Warner Bros. Pictures
Hogwarts Legacy spin-off incoming?
After multiple rumours and leaks, Warner Bros. has made things official: a live-action reboot of the Harry Potter movies is coming to the silver screen. During a series of announcements related to a company-wide rebranding of the HBO Max streaming service, a Harry Potter TV series was confirmed to be in the works.
This total reboot of the Harry Potter films will serve as a new adaptation of the seven books written by J.K. Rowling, starting with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Unlike the recently-released hit game Hogwarts Legacy, Rowling is set to be closely involved with the series’ production as an executive producer. The project is still seeking a writer and showrunner, which means it's still hovering around the pre-production stage. Here’s how HBO Max, now rebranded simply as ‘Max’, describes the series:
The stories from each of Rowling’s Harry Potter books will become a decade-long series produced with the same epic craft, love and care this global franchise is known for. The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail, much loved characters and dramatic locations that Harry Potter fans have loved for over 25 years. Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.
And there you have it. The Harry Potter series will feature an all-new cast - not that actors like Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson were raring to jump back into their past roles - and run for 10 years at least, adapting all the mainline books. With all the space a long-form television format allows for, the books will now have much more room to breathe, and skipped-over scenes (Tom Riddle's backstory) and characters relegated to supporting roles (most of the ghosts) will now have more time to shine. With Rowling’s involvement, there’s always a chance that we’ll see additional content in the series as well, instead of a straightforward one-to-one adaptation.
Rowling said:
Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me, and I’m looking forward to being part of this new adaptation which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long-form television series.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav also confirmed that the company could take on more Harry Potter projects if they wish, saying, “We’re free to do anything we want. Some areas we need to do with J.K., other areas we have the full ability to go forward. This is a full deployment on Max of Harry Potter. We can still develop other properties.” Theoretically, the company could pursue an adaptation of Hogwarts Legacy or incorporate characters from the game in other media, if they so wish.
There is also the obvious elephant in the room regarding Rowling’s bigoted views against trans folk, but HBO exec Casey Bloys shied away from commenting on the matter during the announcement, saying:
J.K. is an executive producer, and her insights will be helpful. We are in the Harry Potter business. The TV show is new and exciting, but we’ve been in the Harry Potter business for 20 years; this isn’t a new decision. We’re comfortable being in the Potter business. J.K. is a very online conversation … it’s very nuanced and complicated and not something we’re going to get into. Our priority is what’s onscreen. The Harry Potter story is incredibly affirmative and positive about love and acceptance, and that’s our priority, what’s on the screen.
Which of course, is a lot of words to say nothing at all.