There could be a new Harry Potter series on the way, whether we want it or not. Reports are emerging that Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. is close to a deal to turn the beloved books into a television series, with a season based on each of the seven novels. This will likely have a mixed response from fans, who love the original films that didn’t end that long ago and are still relatively fresh in our minds.
Warner Bros. and HBO have been looking to turn the intellectual property into the cornerstone of a new streaming strategy according to unnamed inside sources that spoke to Bloomberg. Warner Bros. CEO, David Zaslav, and HBO chief Casey Bloys have been trying to make a deal with author J.K Rowling for some time now though it has yet to be confirmed. If the deal does happen, we can expect years of Harry Potter content on our screens.
Though the films are cemented in popular culture and within the mind of almost every millennial who had access to cinemas and televisions growing up, one of the few complaints aimed at the was that they missed a lot from the books. Characters, world-building, and even smaller plots were dropped in order to get the books, some of which were over 700 pages, condensed for film. The longest book of the seven, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, sat at a whopping 912 pages long, yet the film was the second shortest at two hours and 18 minutes.
Fans were a little disappointed at this as it missed out on what they believed to be key moments, character development, and plot points. Moments such as Dobby leading Harry to the Room of Requirement, Hermione’s quest to free the house elves, and the actual romance building between Harry and Ginny, were all lost to cuts to fit the mammoth story into one film. This could possibly be addressed in a series that would allow a much more in-depth dive into the Wizarding World.
If the deal were to go through, Rowling would likely stay close by to oversee and ensure that the show stayed true to the books but given the rift she has built between herself and her fans due to her controversial views on transgender people, this may not be a boon to the production. The Fantastic Beasts franchise didn’t do nearly as well as the Harry Potter franchise due to the controversy surrounding both Rowling and Johnny Depp at the time, as well as poor writing, so this could possibly plague the potential television series as well.
Seen as this is still a rumor, we will have to wait and see if this deal does go through though, and whether or not we are getting more Harry Potter content in the future, for better or worse.