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Harry Potter may be getting a redux. I could insert some form of celebratory exclamation here, but do I want to? I’m not sure we need this. I’m on record as a Harry Potter admirer, albeit not an outright fan. That just means I tried reading the books but didn’t get into them. I didn’t watch the movies until my kid wanted to about a decade and a half after they came out. I appreciate the world created and the cleverness of the stories and have nothing bad to say about any of it, I just never entered it. But I got the impression the films were done right the first time so I don’t know that they need to be redone into HBO series. Because that’s what’s being proposed: one series per book. Oh, and Potter author J.K. Rowling will be involved.
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter might be making a return to the screen.
Warner Bros. Discovery is currently in talks about producing a Harry Potter television series, PEOPLE has confirmed.
Sources familiar with the project previously told Bloomberg the potential multi-season series would be based directly on J.K. Rowling’s original seven books. Each book, starting with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and ending with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, would get its own season of the show, per the outlet.
Unlike the recent Fantastic Beasts franchise, which told new stories within the Harry Potter universe, but not about the books’ core characters, the series — which would be housed under HBO Max — would revisit the beloved original story in a new way.
Per Bloomberg, they are hoping the series can be a flagship of Warner Bros.’ upcoming streaming strategy announcement, set for next week. The April 12 presentation will also see a preview of the forthcoming HBO Max and discovery integration and rebrand.
Rowling — who came under fire after making comments widely condemned as anti-transgender in 2020 — would be involved in the series, according to the outlet, to ensure its accuracy to her original storyline, but she would not hold a major production role.
The author has been hesitant to give her approval to many Wizarding World spinoffs, though she supported the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage production and the Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks, which debuted in Orlando in 2010 and later expanded to Universal Studios Hollywood in 2020.
Warner Bros. chief executive officer David Zaslav and HBO chief Casey Bloys have been involved in talks with Rowling, according to Bloomberg, but no deal has been finalized.
There’s an argument to be made that each book should have been a series to begin with because there was so much to each story. But these kinds of series didn’t exist when the first film came out, so editing the book down and condensing it to a 152-minute run time was their only option. The series is a great format for the books and HBO is a good home for the series. But after Fantastic Beasts took the gilding off the franchise, perhaps there’s an oversaturation of Harry Potter. And I know this is a stupid argument, but I just cannot imagine another Harry other than Daniel Radcliffe. He’ll be the first to give his blessing, but I just can’t see it. Don’t get me started on what the poor bastard who gets cast as Snape will have to contend with.
The other rather large elephant in the room is how hard it will be to support a project with Rowling attached to it. I understand she won’t have a major production role, but at this point isn’t having her stench anywhere on it enough. It’s sad, isn’t it, that something that meant so much to so many would be better left alone than resurrected? All because it’s creator, who used to be a hero, has chosen to fill her heart with hate.
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