HBO considering filming seasons of the new Harry Potter show back to back

HBO is currently working on getting a new Harry Potter TV show off the ground. They're casting young actors to play Harry, Ron and Hermione and may be trying to woo veteran English actor Mark Rylance to play Dumbledore. They want to adapt all seven of author J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books with a level of detail that the Harry Potter movies couldn't squeeze in.

This means at least seven seasons of the show, which could keep fans occupied for a long while. Not that we'll be seeing actual episodes anytime soon. Speaking to reporters, HBO executive Casey Blows speculated that we wouldn't be watching the series until the start of 2027, but even that's just a guess; "don’t hold me to any of that,” he added, per Indiewire. They have a lot of work ahead of them before they can be sure about a release date.

Thinking beyond that, how might the show roll out over the years? Remember: a lot of the actors will be very young at the start; they're looking for kids aged 9-11 to play Harry, Ron and Hermione. The Harry Potter story is told over the course of seven years at a magical boarding school, but if the show takes multiple years to get each new season off the ground, the actors could be in their mid-to-late '20s by the end of it, all while trying to play high school seniors.

To prevent this, Bloys said that the producers are considering shooting the first and second seasons back to back, saying that the gap in age from 11 to 13 "is a big jump in kids’ lives.” They want to minimize the possibility that the kids will grow by leaps and bounds between seasons.

J.K. Rowing is "fairly involved" in the new Harry Potter show

To fans, this is all very exciting, but there's a big question mark: in the past several years, J.K. Rowling herself has become a lightning rod for controversy on account of her transphobic beliefs, which she's been laser-focused on for a while now. It's gotten to the point where she's openly feuding with actors from the movies like Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson and even engaged in some light Holocaust denial. For someone who was once considered a public advocate for liberal views, the transformation has been pretty stunning to watch.

That's made some fans nervous about her involvement in the show. Bloys says that Rowling has “been fairly involved in the process of selecting the writer and director.” We know that Francesca Gardiner will serve as showrunner and that Succession and Game of Thrones vet Mark Mylod will direct a bunch of the episodes. They both seem well-suited to the job. “I imagine she’ll have opinions on casting,” Bloys continued, saying that Rowling's involvement hasn’t deterred anyone from being open to participating in the show.

I don't imagine they'll broadcast Rowling's involvement, since it seems she goes through a scandal cycle every few months. So long as she's limited to giving advice on internal hires, I don't think there will be much visible damage onscreen. I guess the worst case scenario is that the Harry Potter show starts and suddenly Voldemort is an outspoken trans ally whose evil mission is to normalize the use of gender-neutral bathrooms, but I have to believe HBO would quietly steer the series away from that.

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