HBO's Harry Potter show, which will adapt all seven of author J.K. Rowling's original novels in their entirety, is moving quickly towards becoming a reality, with cast announcements and an impending shoot date. But the real question is why they are making this show at all, rather than trying to expand upon the source material with something new.
The Harry Potter book series is less than 30 years old, so it's not exactly ancient. It's been almost 25 years since the first movie, and just 14 since the movie series was brought to an end with Deathly Hallows Part 2, so it seems a little early for what is essentially a remake (or re-adaptation), especially as it comes from the same studio. Why not do something different? Is it possible that there's only so much potential in the franchise?
From a fan's point of view, adapting Harry Potter as a TV show will allow them to include a lot more from the books that simply couldn't be fit into the movies. As faithful as the movies were, there were still plenty of lessons, Quidditch matches, and personal stories left out. Having six hours or so to play with will let the producers really get into the worldbuilding and show us every part of what a year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is like.
But beyond that, what good reason is there for going into these books again just to tell the same story? What is stopping them from making an original show?
It's a small world after all
There are worlds and then there are worlds. Harry Potter is a world. If you think about it, it's not really that big. Most of what we see in the books and films takes place in Hogwarts; there are places like Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley that are certainly charming, but they aren't really all that interesting or important. There's not much to explore about them, as they are mostly there for shopping sprees and the occasional side quest. The meat of the story takes place at the school, and the story being told revolves around the children who live there.
Back in the 1940s and '50s, there were a large number of books and comics published in Britain that showed the lives and adventures of children in English boarding schools. They captured the imagination of people for decades, and Hogwarts takes its inspiration from them. A large country house (or in this case a castle) filled with dusty rooms and secret passages, eccentric teachers, rivalries between the sports teams, and adventures waiting around every corner. In all of the books, with the exception of Deathly Hallows, the main story takes place at Hogwarts; that's where the fun starts, and no matter how unlikely it might seem, this school is the center of everything, even the final battle to defeat Voldemort.
For this reason, it's incredibly hard to expand upon the Wizarding World without becoming detached from what we know and love. It's revealed that there are wizarding schools and governments around the world, but would these be all that interesting to explore? The Fantastic Beasts movies failed to expand on the world successfully. Granted, they were tenuous expansions of an in-universe textbook, but even so, they lacked the feel of the original Potter films.
I think this is because the stories are English, or at least, based on J.K. Rowling's view of England. They are set, as I say, in an English boarding school, there are steam trains, sports matches, the lovable Weasleys, and the suburbia of Privet Drive. If you move the focus abroad, you lose something of this, and end up with Aurors in trench coats like something from a 1930s detective flick.
Of course, it wouldn't be impossible to move outside of the world shown in the books, at least in theory, but it is part of the appeal of the franchise, and losing that aesthetic will make audiences wonder just why it "doesn't feel like" Harry Potter. Indeed, the franchise is partly responsible for the "dark academia" aesthetic, which revolves around these shadowy corridors, deep libraries of leather-bound books, and the Oxford-esque look of crumbling ancient buildings, armchairs by open fires, and generous feasts.
The Wizarding World isn't like other fantasy settings, such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. It's not something that exists in its own right, but is squeezed in between the gaps of our own world. It's not some large, original place that can be explored indefinitely, but just a few streets and buildings where the wizards and witches work and socialize. That works well for the Potter books, but it doesn't leave much room for exploration. The most successful spin-off media still centers around Hogwarts, such as the Hogwarts Legacy game, which gives players a chance to return to the place they know so well, take part in lessons, and meet the characters they love, rather than creating a completely new experience.
In every line of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, you get a sense that this is an old world. Whenever a character comes to a new location, you're given a brief history of its creation and use. There's a huge amount of detail, and it makes the world seem natural and complete. The world of Harry Potter is painted with much broader strokes. We don't really know the details of Voldemort's first rise to power, or much of the history of the Wizarding World. In fact, it seems to be stuck in some strange time period that's not quite medieval but not quite modern, again referencing that English dark academia aesthetic.
Trying to build upon this immediately makes problems, as you hit upon snags. It's more of a "that would look good" approach to worldbuilding, rather than creating a solid base from which all other things extend. You can see these problems appear throughout the books, as the shaky underpinnings of the world begin to wobble as more and more lore in piled on them.
Harry Potter is a hero's story
There's also another problem, one that Star Wars has suffered from in recent years. As the title suggests, this is a story about Harry Potter, the boy who lived. He's the MVP of the story, the Chosen One, our first entry into this world, the audience surrogate, and the hero we all want to see win. When you move the focus away from him, you lose something.
Without Harry Potter, you lose that character around whom everything revolves, who will be the make-or-break in the fight against evil. As a result, all stories that don't feature him would have lower stakes and seem less important. It might be possible to make a prequel about James and Lily Potter, but we would know the ending. There's not much you can do except to draw in the margins a little, and any show that focused on something like another group of kids having adventures at Hogwarts would naturally have lower stakes and lack the big heroics, making it more suitable for an animated show than big budget live-action TV.
Star Wars has encountered this problem when they try to move away from the Skywalkers. The original trilogy was about Luke and the prequels were about Anakin, everything else feels like an add-on. The most successful stories, like Rogue One and The Clone Wars, have revolved around events in which the Skywalkers were also involved. It's what makes shows like The Mandalorian feel so small, because they don't have — can't have — these characters on whom the fate of the entire galaxy rests.
Trying to build a world-defining story about heroes and their struggles against evil that matches up to the original is hard to do, and often just feels like a cheap replay. You can't beat Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter, so why bother trying?
When you have something as big as Harry Potter, you don't just need the fans to be invested; you need millions of casuals to watch as well, and they won't necessarily know or care much about a vague spin-off about what Hermione did as Minister for Magic or Mad Eye Moody's detective show. They will simply wonder why it doesn't look anything like what they are used to and why it doesn't feature Harry Potter in the lead. Most people know something of The Lord of the Rings, but not many have read The Fall of Gondolin or seem interested in The Hunt for Gollum movie, unless they are already big Tolkien fans.
On top of this, J.K. Rowling hasn't done all that much to expand on the Wizarding World herself, except for the Cursed Child play (which has been roundly criticized by fans) and a few textbooks. She hasn't returned to pen another novel, so there's no pre-existing source material to draw from besides the seven main books. As a result, any writer wanting to make an original show would need to do all the work themselves.
I'm sure the show will be successful if done right. It comes at just the right time to catch the nostalgia wave, and the franchise is still popular. But I really don't think there's much room for expansion of the Harry Potter IP. It's a story of a boy who lived, his struggles, failures and victories, and there doesn't seem to be much potential beyond that.
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