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A Harry Potter TV special is coming to HBO Max

By Dan Selcke

Harry Potter look-a-likes, Carly Smith, left, 10, of Goodlettsville, Jack, 7, and brother Will Chilcutt, 11, sit and listen to excerpts from various Harry Potter books at Books-A-Million near Rivergate July 7, 2000 during the prerelease activities of the latest book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" Jack was one of three runners-up in the lookalike contest for the popular character.Harry Potter Book Sales
Harry Potter look-a-likes, Carly Smith, left, 10, of Goodlettsville, Jack, 7, and brother Will Chilcutt, 11, sit and listen to excerpts from various Harry Potter books at Books-A-Million near Rivergate July 7, 2000 during the prerelease activities of the latest book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" Jack was one of three runners-up in the lookalike contest for the popular character.Harry Potter Book Sales /
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Well, it’s not a proper TV show set in the Harry Potter universe, but it’ll do: The Hollywood Reporter has it that in order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone movie, WarnerMedia is mounting a Harry Potter series to air over five nights sometime later this year. But before you get excited about the continuing adventures of Hermione or a Marauders spin-off or something, take a beat: this is an unscripted Harry Potter quiz show followed by a retrospective about the series.

“To celebrate the dedicated fans old and new who have passionately kept the Wizarding World magic alive in so many forms for decades, these exciting specials will celebrate their Harry Potter fandom in a must-see multiplatform TV event,” said WarnerMedia exec Tom Ascheim. “All Potter fans can gear up for this ultimate one-of-a-kind celebration by embracing their inner Hermione Granger and studying their Wizarding World knowledge. For fans who have always wanted to discover what it might be like to take the O.W.L. exams, this is as close as they are going to get!”

The show is already casting via WizardingWorld.com. It will drop on HBO Max, Cartoon Network and TBS, although we don’t know the date. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling won’t be directly involved, although her team is.

When will we get a real Harry Potter spin-off?

This announcement it exciting for fans, but a lot of us are wondering: When is WarnerMedia going to bite the bullet and make an actual Harry Potter TV show, with sets and actors and props and stuff? There were rumors that one was in early development a few months back, but HBO chief content officer Casey Bloys shut them down. “There are no deals in place,” Bloys said. “There are no writers. There’s nothing. So I can’t add anything to what everybody’s already speculating about.”

But you know folk at WarnerMedia are thinking about it, right? They’d be nuts not to. In an era where everyone is trying to get their own cinematic universe off the ground — the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Game of Thrones universe, the DCEU, even an Avatar: The Last Airbender universe — the Harry Potter universe is a valuable commodity. And when WarnerMedia wants to get serious, we’re ready with suggestions:

Next. 11 Harry Potter spin-off series we want to see (or not). dark

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