Warner Bros. Discovery officially announced the Harry Potter TV series on Wednesday and released the first teaser returning to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The video announcement for the Max Original series, which will air on the rebranded streaming service formerly known as HBO Max, features composer John Williams’ iconic “Hedwig’s Theme” from the Harry Potter films as the floating candles from Hogwarts’ Great Hall transform into the franchise’s lightning bolt logo. Below, watch the official Harry Potter Max Original series announcement video and read on for everything revealed today about the first ever Harry Potter scripted television series that promises to be “a faithful adaptation” of author J.K. Rowling’s beloved books.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max describes the series: “The stories from each of Rowling’s Harry Potter books will become adecade-long series produced with the same epic craft, love and care thisglobal franchise is known for. The series will feature a new cast tolead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail, muchloved characters and dramatic locations that Harry Potter fans haveloved for over 25 years. Each season will be authentic to the originalbooks and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to newaudiences around the world, while the original, classic and belovedfilms will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watchglobally.”
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Warner Bros. Television, behind Game of Thrones, Westworld, and The Last of Us, is producing with Bronte Film and TV. Rowling serves as executive producer along with her agent, Fantastic Beasts executive producer Neil Blair, and Ruth Kenley-Letts, executive producer of C.B. Strike, BBC One’s adaptation of the Rowling-authored Cormoran Strike series. David Heyman, who produced all eight original Harry Potter films, is in talks to executive produce the series.
“We are delighted to give audiences the opportunity to discoverHogwarts in a whole new way,” said Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO, HBO& Max Content. “Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon and it isclear there is such an enduring love and thirst for the Wizarding World.In partnership with Warner Bros. Television and J.K. Rowling, this newMax Original series will dive deep into each of the iconic books thatfans have continued to enjoy for all of these years.”
Added Rowling, “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my booksis important to me, and I’m looking forward to being part of this newadaptation which will allow for a degree of depth and detail onlyafforded by a long-form television series.”
Rowling authored seven Harry Potter books that inspired the new series: 1997’s Philosopher’s Stone, 1998’s Chamber of Secrets, 1999’s Prisoner of Azkaban, 2000’s Goblet of Fire, 2003’s Order of the Phoenix, 2005’s Half-Blood Prince, and 2007’s Deathly Hallows. The big-budget TV adaptation of Rowling’s novels will be at the scale of Game of Thrones and its spinoff House of the Dragon “or higher,” Bloys said during a Max presentation Wednesday. “Whatever it takes to make a quality show.” HBO reportedly spent upwards of $20 million per episode on Dragon for a production budget totaling nearly $200 million — double the budget of Thrones.
While the television adaptation means rebooting Harry Potter, WBD CEO David Zaslav said the company is “free to do anything we want” in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and that the series does not rule out other projects. “Some areas we need to do with J.K., other areas we have the full ability to go forward. This is a full deployment on Max of Harry Potter. We can still develop other properties.”
In November, months after Discovery completed its acquisition of WarnerMedia from AT&T to form Warner Bros. Discovery, Zaslav said during an earnings call that the new company would focus on key franchises like Harry Potter and DC Comics, also recently relaunched as DC Studios under co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran.
“We’re going to have a real focus on franchises. We haven’t had a Superman movie in 13 years. We haven’t had a Harry Potter movie in 15 years,” Zaslav said at the time, referring to 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2, the eighth and final film in the saga.
The new Harry Potter Max Original series will stream on Max in the U.S. and globally once produced. The Max rebrand of HBO Max, combining that streamer with Discovery+ content, launches May 23rd.
