Max’s Harry Potter TV show will explore the books “more deeply” than the movies

Earlier this year, Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced that they were going to adapt J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books as a TV show. The Harry Potter movies wrapped up just over a decade ago and still hold up, so we were surprised that we were getting another version of the story…but we weren’t that surprised. After all, Harry Potter is still very popular, and there was no way WBD could resist making a series to drive new subscribers to its Max streaming service.

Still, the question of “why” lingers in the air. Do you need a TV adaptation when the movies are still widely beloved and the books are there? As producer David Heyman told Total Film, one new thing the show can do is adapt parts of the books the movies didn’t have time for.

“[On Harry Potter] It’s early days,” Heyman said. “We haven’t even hired a writer to begin writing. It’s a bit early. But hopefully [it will be] something that’s very special, and gives us an opportunity to see the books, and to enjoy a series which explores the books more deeply.”

My read on the situation is that WBD committed to a Harry Potter series because they saw dollar signs, and they figure they can puzzle out what shape the show takes later. That said, it’s true that there are things from the books the movies had to gloss over. I’ll be following the progress of the show with curiosity, although with both writers and actors on strike in Hollywood, I’m not expecting any big developments in the near future.

Would David Yates return to the Harry Potter universe?

Once things get off the ground, Max might try to secure David Yates to help direct the show. After all, he directed the final four Harry Potter movies: Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince and both Deathly Hallows movies. And then he directed all three Fantastic Beasts movies. Guy knows his way around the Potter-verse.

That said, the Fantastic Beasts barely made it out of theaters alive, and it doesn’t sound like WBD is eager to continue them anytime soon. “[W]e haven’t had a conversation since we finished [Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore],” Yates told Deadline. “It’s been about ‘Let’s just park it, and be done for a while.’”

Yates isn’t ruling out a return to the Harry Potter universe, but it sounds like he could use a break, which is fair. “Never say never, I would say, but I’m very excited about moving on,” he said. “I have other projects on my desk, which are a million miles away from wizards and involved all sorts of things which are non-wizard associated.”

“Never say never,” he repeated. We’ll park it there for now.

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