Last year, we learned there's a newHarry PotterTV series in the works at Warner Bros. The series, which is currentlycasting its lead roles for Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, is expected to premiere on HBO and MAX in 2026.
According toVariety, Francesca Gardiner is the new showrunner and executive producer for theHarry PotterTV series. Gardiner is best known for work onSuccession, His Dark Materials,andKilling Eve.
By the time the new series premieres, theHarry Pottermovieswill be, at most, 25 years old. That's from the date of the release ofHarry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.The Harry Potter books will be less than 30 years old by the time the TV series premieres. Doesn't it feel just too soon for a Harry Potter TV series?
While the series is in great hands with Gardiner and executive producer Mark Mylod, who will also direct, my worry is that fans aren't ready for anotherHarry PotterTV series. Will it just be white noise or worse in already ultra-competitive TV landscape.
We shared three reasons it's too soon for aHarry PotterTV series!
The Harry Potter movies are, largely, good
For the most part, theHarry Pottermovies, as a franchise, are good! There are better adaptations, but you rarely see a movie series based on a book series withRotten Tomatoesscores as high as theHarry Pottermovies.
More importantly, theHarry Pottermovies do a very good job of capturing the world and story of theHarry Potterbooks. There are subtle changes in the first three movies, but they are very, very close adaptations. The creative teams had to make some big choices because the last five movies cover so much ground. They had to cut important storylines.
Sure, there are flaws in theHarry Pottermovies. There are things, especially later in the movies, that are not particularly well done. SplittingHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallowsinto two movies did not work for me. I don't know how they should have done it, butHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1is one of the weakest movies of the series.
What if the show is bad? It's going to have to clear an extremely high bar to even feel necessary. That's a huge reason why they should leave theHarry Potterstory from the books alone for at least a little while longer.
Overall, theHarry Pottermovies are good and enjoyable. They do a good job telling the story, and that's enough for right now.
PLUS, DANIEL RADCLIFFE ISN'T EVEN GOING TO BE 40 YEARS OLD BY THE TIME THE SHOW PREMIERES! I feel like that matters.
The Harry Potter movies are still super popular
TheHarry Pottermoviesmoved to Peacockfrom MAX in August andback in September. Instantly, the movies became some of the top movies on each streaming service when they were added. It shows that there's still so much interest in the Harry Potter movies.
If theHarry PotterTV series is going to tell the same story as theHarry Pottermovies, which is an accurate adaptation of the books, do we need a TV series? Fans have access to these movies every day.
The obvious rebuttal to this argument is that people love the movies and they will tune in to watch a new Harry Potter TV series. That's probably true, but I would rather have MAX and Warners Bros. bringing new stories to life instead of literally one of the most popular stories of all time.
The interest in Harry Potter is still there, but the idea feels stale.
There are more exciting stories from the Wizarding World that we haven't seen yet
This is the most important point, in my opinion. We've already done this story fairly recently. Yes, it's been 25 years since the first movie started filming, but the eighth and final movie,Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2premiered in 2011. It'll only be 15 years by the time theHarry PotterTV series premieres.
That just feels too soon, especially when there's otherHarry Potterstories we haven't seen.Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themtried to tell the stories of the Wizarding World, and it was not super successful.
For me, that's not the most interesting story that they could tell, though! It'd be great to see the Order of the Phoenix fighting against Lord Voldemort for the first time. That's the story I think most Harry Potter fans want to see. The rise of Voldemort would also be interesting.
Or, they could do something more ambitious. There are other magical schools! There are schools in other countries. Are there other dark wizards and witches? Has there ever been a Dark Lady? Like, just do something different instead of serving us Harry Potter's seven years in Hogwarts, please.
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