New Look at Key Harry Potter TV Show Location Revives the Biggest HBO Remake Debate

HBO’s Harry Potter TV show is taking shape, and now a new look at a major Wizarding World location has been revealed. The upcoming remake has been in production for several months, ahead of an expected 2027 release on HBO and HBO Max. We’ve already seen some of the major characters, including Dominic McLaughlin’s Harry, and even a few notable changes, such as a scene of Albus Dumbledore meeting with Nicolas Flamel.

The latest comes courtesy of UK tabloid The Sun [h/t Wizarding World Direct] in a now-deleted video that took us on a tour of Diagon Alley, where wizards go to do their shopping. The location is one of the most important in the Harry Potter series, as it represents Harry’s first real step into the Wizarding World after learning the truth about his identity. The appearance of the street in the remake is fairly similar to the Harry Potter movies in terms of the store design, with various colorful buildings that put a magical twist on its 19th-century England aesthetic.

Is The Harry Potter TV Show Sticking Too Close To The Movies’ Design?

The video did serve to bring an old debate about the remake back to the surface: is it sticking too closely to the aesthetic of the movies, and if so, what’s the point of redoing it at all? This has been something that’s been raised a few times, such as the appearance of Nick Frost’s Rubeus Hagrid, and Diagon Alley once again highlights it. Part of the problem is that, while the movies had their flaws, they brought the Wizarding World to life almost perfectly, in a way that’s hard to beat.

Still, there are some differences. The street appears to be considerably narrower than the one used in the movies, while there are also some additional businesses as well, such as the appearance of a coffee shop by the name of Accioffee, which has a neon sign that doesn’t fit with the films. Gringotts Bank is featured at the end of the street in its typically imposing fashion, but it is now part of an open square. It also looks like there’s more happening on the upper level of the stores, notably with a stone bridge going across the street at one point. Of course, there’ll also be VFX work to come later on, which could further alter its appearance from the films.

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The remake has to perform a careful balancing act. The movies got a lot of things right, and so taking some inspiration from them makes sense, especially in terms of things like production design, because it also fits with the books. Really, though, it needs to find the right mix of keeping some elements that worked, being even more faithful to the source material, and adding in its own flourishes and expanding upon things that weren’t in the book, and those left out of the movies.

It is unlikely to do this in a way that makes everyone happy, as the response to the Diagon Alley video shows. It probably could stand to push things a little further from the movies in that regard, but it is also making some notable changes and additions: the inclusion of characters like Peeves and Professor Binns, for instance, or spending more time with Draco Malfoy at his home, can help it stand apart from its big-screen counterpart.

Similarly, the expanded runtime of the Harry Potter TV show means it can flesh things out more, diving deeper into storylines and characters than the movies could. If it gets those things right, then it might be able to ensure it feels different enough from what came before.

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