It’s time to choose your wand and grab a spot in line for the Sorting Hat, because a new Harry Potter live-action TV series is in the works at HBO Max.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, executives at the streaming service have been holding brainstorming conversations with potential writers to imagine new ways to steer the Harry Potter franchise. However, the TV series is still a long way off from becoming a reality. Right now, there’s no writer attached, no plot hammered down, and no cast in mind, which means they’re still in the “extremely early stages and no deals have been made,” notes THR
Because the live-action Harry Potter TV show is still searching for a pitch, the creative teams at HBO Max and Warner Bros. are hesitant to announce this news themselves. As they said in a statement to THR, “There are no Harry Potter series in development at the studio or on the streaming platform.”
There’s countless opportunities that the upcoming Harry Potter series could explore, but ultimately it must be green-lit by the people who control the rights to the property: J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. Prior to now, they’ve had incredible success in adapting the best-seller books for the screen. The original eight movies churned out a profit of $7 billion worldwide, and the prequel film series Fantastic Beasts is also fairing well financially, despite some troubling cast changes.
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Depending on who is chosen to pen the TV series’ script, this could be a new opportunity for fans to get lost in the world of Harry Potter without worrying about transphobic commentary from Rowling. Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and Eddie Redmayne have all issued statements condemning the author’s harmful comments, but that hasn’t stopped her from doubling down on those views on Twitter, in lengthy essays, and even in a new book — a bigoted stance that eventually cost Rowling her Robert F Kennedy Human Rights award.
