Things are certainly heating up in the world of Harry Potter, with major news updates finally emerging about the HBO television series adaptation of one of the most popular and successful book series of all time. Information had been sparse since Warner Bros. first announced the Wizarding World reboot in April 2023. After a year and a half with few updates as to the progress on the series, things seemed to pick up in June with the announcement that Succession alumni Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod would be at the helm of the new series as showrunner and director, respectively. Then last week, the official site for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter listed a casting call across the entirety of the United Kingdom and Ireland for a diverse range of children who would be between the ages of 9-11 in April 2025, fueling speculation about when production might start on the series.
In an interview with Deadline, reported via Collider, HBO CEO Casey Bloys clarified the current state of the series. While the casting call may have mentioned an early 2025 date, that’s just to establish age ranges for the child actors who will be the heart and soul of the series. “We haven’t announced any [date],” says Bloys. “I think they were talking about age [the young actors] will be in March, that doesn’t mean necessarily a production start date.”
So when can Potter fans hope to get their next fix? Though Bloys won’t give any specific information with so many factors in play, he did clarify the date range that the studio is aiming for. “Late ’26-’27. Writers are just getting started so it’s too soon to talk about airdate.”
Harry Potter and the Stories Yet To Be Told
It’s been only 23 years since Harry Potter burst onto film screens with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, and only 13 since the series made its final bow with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. Some might think that it’s too soon to revisit the Wizarding World and reboot the entire series. However, with the failure of the spinoff series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them after just three (out of an expected five) films were released, it’s hardly surprising that Warner Bros. is eager to revisit the cash cow that made them billions.
While the film series is beloved, there’s no denying that much of the richness of the books that made the magical world so immersive and treasured by fans was lost in the adaptation from book to screen. The television format will no doubt allow for stories and characters that were ignored or truncated in the limited format of film to be expanded upon, giving the story more depth. Ginny Weasley actress Bonnie Wright recently expressed a desire to see a future adaptation delve deeper into the relationship between Harry and Ginny, which developed more gradually over the series of books, and was given limited development in the films. Fans have long hoped for a deeper dive into the story of the Marauders, and how the Marauders Map was developed. The story of The Chosen One missed out on much of its depth by excluding the information that there may have been a second person who could have fulfilled the prophecy, Neville Longbottom. The stories and characters that a television series could expand upon are countless.
So perhaps it is time to give Harry Potter its due with a new and expanded screen adaptation. Since we met Daniel Radcliffe’s Harry, fans have met three different Batman and Spider-Man actors. However, there’s an even bigger specter looming over the adaptation than the previous cast and films, in the form of Harry Potter book scribe J.K. Rowling. In the years since she became a household name, Rowling has chosen to use her power and privilege to promote hateful rhetoric, which has turned many previous fans away from the series. While Potter remains popular, many fans have abandoned the series in the wake of Rowling’s exposure as a TERF and her ongoing campaigns against trans people, and it’s impossible to know how much her words had an effect on the downfall of the Fantastic Beasts film series. With Rowling tied to the new Harry Potter series from HBO, many of these former fans will likely continue to turn away from the series they once loved.