Harry Potter: HBO Max Exec Gives Update on Potential Spinoff Series

Will the Boy Who Lived live again on HBO Max? During Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q3 earnings call last week, CEO David Zaslav said the company is open to continuing the spellbinding saga “if we can do something with [creator J.K. Rowling] on Harry Potter going forward.” Zaslav explained WBD would “have a real focus on franchises” like The Lord of the Rings, DC’s Superman, and Harry Potter, but the Fantastic Beasts corner of the Wizarding World has reportedly stalled after three films. Again referencing the 8-movie Harry Potter franchise that grossed a collective $7.7 billion between 2001 and 2011, Zaslav said, “The DC movies and the Harry Potter movies provided a lot of the profits of Warner Bros. Motion Pictures over the last 25 years.”

In a new interview with Variety, Sarah Aubrey, Head of Originals for HBO Max, confirmed the streaming service is “very much in the business of creating new content for those [Wizarding World] fans and thinking what to do next.” 

Asked if that means HBO Max is developing a Harry Potter TV series, Aubrey answered, “There’s nothing like a Harry Potter fan, in terms of their endless appetite for storytelling and new ways of interacting with these characters … We don’t have a series in active development right now. But we are very much in that business, because fans are just clamoring for more storytelling.”

Last year, HBO Max reunited the Harry Potter cast for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts television special, and in 2023, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will allow players to wield magic and study witchcraft and wizardry in the hotly-anticipated video game Hogwarts Legacy.

2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 concluded the original movie saga that starred Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint as a trio of Hogwarts students whose battle against the Dark Lord Voldemort determined the fate of the Wizarding World. The stage production Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a sequel based on a story by Rowling, and the spin-off film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them followed in 2016.

The eight Harry Potter and three Fantastic Beasts films are available to stream on HBO Max.