Harry Potter show episode count should be decided ‘shortly'

We're very close to finding out just how many episodes will be in the first season of HBO's Harry Potter series.

Channing Dungey, the Warner Bros. TV CEO, revealed in a Deadline interview that they were close to confirming the episode count of the first season of the Harry Potter series.

Here's what Dungey mentioned to Deadline in the interview:

"Not something that we can share, because we’re still working on some finesses on the last couple of scripts, and the question becomes, do we think that it’s worth breaking one into two more? We should know shortly, I would think."

Looking at the Harry Potter story, I don't see how the first season isn't six, seven, or eight episodes. If it's any longer than that, it's going to be quite boring for viewers because there's just not that much that happens in those first few books that will translate to good TV. As the story goes on, I could see the series moving to 8-10 episodes per season, but that's probably cutting too much story for some of the longer books. I'm sure Francesca Gardiner and her team will do a great job, but it's going to be jarring for some fans when the first movie is, like, two hours long.

It sounds like Warner Bros. is just figuring out whether they need to split a few episodes into more parts. I'm hoping they try to pull off the first season with as few episodes as possible.

The seven-book Harry Potter series was split into eight Harry Potter movies, so it's going to be really interesting to see how Warner Bros. and HBO are able to split up this story. I have some very obvious concerns, especially with the early seasons.

Take the first example of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, which is what that story is based on, is basically the same length as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Percy Jackson's first season was eight, short-ish episodes. These were not full hour-long episodes, and while it left something to be desired, it moved quickly.

If Harry Potter doesn't do something similar, we could be a very bored audience simply because there's not that much going on. Sure, things are happening, but considering the three-act structure of a TV episode, it's actually going to be much harder to pull off a good episode of Harry Potter than fans think. It's going to be interesting to see how they play it, for sure.

We'll share more about the episode count when we find out! Production on the new season starts later this year, but we won't see the series until 2026 or 2027!