In April 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced a new era for Potterheads: J.K. Rowling’s beloved series Harry Potter would become a TV series, streaming exclusively on HBO. Nearly 15 years after the final film in the Harry Potter movie franchise hit theaters, Harry, Hermione, and Ron are set to take to the small screen as early as 2026.
There’s little we know about this new show. However, it’s important to note that the series isn’t covering any new content. The series is a reboot and will feature an all-new cast. Warner Bros. Discovery also ensured that the series will serve as a “faithful adaptation of the beloved original Harry Potter books.”
It appears that Warner Bros. isn’t letting the series fall into incapable hands either. Francesca Gardiner, who notably produced other successful series, such as Succession and Killing Eve, joins the crew as the showrunner. Alongside her, lead director Mark Mylod, who served as executive producer for Shameless and Once Upon a Time, enters.
Upon hearing the news of this new series, the first thing that came to mind was how Disney+ recently adapted the book series Percy Jackson and the Olympians into a TV series. Both book series came out around the same time and can be lumped into the children’s fantasy book series genre. The announcement of the Harry Potter TV show begs the question of whether or not the rebooting of book-to-movie franchises into a TV series format will become a trend.
However, in the case of the Percy Jackson series, the movie franchise was not nearly as critically acclaimed as Harry Potter’s. Out of the seven books in the original Percy Jackson series, only two have been adapted for the big screen. Plus, these two films received less-than-ideal ratings, with both receiving Rotten Tomatoes scores within the 40 percent range. J.K. Rowling’s series, on the other hand, boasts scores upwards of 70, 80, and even 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
So, if the Harry Potter TV show isn’t replacing anything horrible or tackling a new story, then what purpose does the series serve exactly? According to Teen Vogue, each season of the TV show will detail one book from the novel series. Given this, we can assume that the show may be able to go into more detail than the movies could hope to. Despite how acclaimed the movies are for their accuracy to the books, having the series in an episodic format may allow fans to see scenes, characters, and elements that the movies neglected in their runtime. With the books having a combined total of over 4,000 pages, a reboot in the form of a TV series rather than a movie franchise may delight fans in search of more.
The question on everyone’s mind remains: who is going to play the Golden Trio? Well, we don’t know that…yet. The official Harry Potter Instagram page posted a casting call a few weeks back intending to find its Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasely. The casting call is limited to actors who will be nine to 11 years old in April 2025 in the UK or Ireland. Given these actors’ young age, it will be exciting to see how they grow over the series’ planned 10-year run.
Whether you’re a Potterhead or just interested in seeing these beloved characters back up on a screen, the new Harry Potter series is bound to be an enjoyable watch. While it will be hard for the series to capture the magic of the original franchise, I’m sure the series will be a worthwhile watch.
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