HBO Max is developing a live-action Harry Potter TV series

It’s early days, but HBO Max is officially looking into making a live-action Harry Potter show, which I think we all knew was coming sooner or later.

It’s happening, everybody: The Hollywood Reporter brings us news that WarnerMedia is developing a live-action Harry Potter series to air on HBO Max.

But before we all get too excited, a caveat: when I say “developing,” I mean they’re talking about it. No one’s been cast, and the executives are still meeting with writers to hear pitches. So no, we’re not going to see new actors playing Harry, Ron and Hermione on the screen next year. We don’t even know if the TV show they end up making will be an adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s original books or some kind of spinoff.

Although — and you can tell me what you think below — I think adapting the original books would be the way to go. Yes, the eight-part movie series wrapped up just a decade ago, but I think a TV series could get into details the movies missed. Plus, the only Harry Potter spinoff we’ve gotten thus far has been the Fantastic Beasts series and it’s been mediocre to bad, so maybe they’re better off sticking to the classics.

And I would watch a Harry Potter TV show that adapts one book per season (maybe they could do two a season in the early years when the books are shorter). What do you think?

There are some hurdles. For one, it’s impossible to talk about Harry Potter these days and not mention all the controversy J.K. Rowling stirred up last year when she outed herself as pretty deeply transphobic. Other Harry Potter properties have started distancing themselves from her, but that’s impossible to do completely because she’s inextricably linked to the brand, and of course, she’ll get royalties from any new Harry Potter project. Warner Bros. will have to walk a tight-rope wire there.

But I have no doubt they’ll try it, because the Harry Potter franchise is far too potentially lucrative for them to ignore; I’ve been expecting them to announce a TV show for a while now and if anything am surprised it took this long.

And this news comes just days after learned that Warner Bros. is also developing a number of Game of Thrones prequel series in addition to House of the Dragon, the one that’s already heading into production. Clearly, the studio wants HBO Max to go toe-to-toe with services like Netflix and Disney+, and is amassing its soldiers to get the job done.

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