In case some of you guys are late to the party, HBOMax have decided to tentatively green light a live-action Harry Potter series. Although the Harry Potter books have all finished and been made into movies, the Fantastic Beasts spin-off film series is still ongoing, hence keeping the magical cinematic universe alive (thankfully). However with this new development, it will cement HBO’s attempt at formally launching its fifth cinematic universe (in some ways their very first cinematic universe, since the first Harry Potter movie released back in 2001) after DC’s Extended Universe, Conjuring Universe, Monsterverse and LEGO Universe.
HBO Max executives are taking their time with the live-action web series, finding potential writers, showrunners, casting directors, cast, etc. Expanding the Harry Potter universe will be top priority for HBO, Warner Bros. and creator J.K. Rowling – all three controlling the rights to the property. The seven-book series and eight-movie franchise has amassed over USD 7 billion around the world and with the last movie having been released almost 10 years ago, this new live-action series will be a good way to bring back fresh interest in the series – which will bring back the older fans while at the same time pulling in newer ones from the younger audiences.
Fans are especially thrilled with this new development. The original movie series were great, but the new format – web series will allow the expansion of the “Potterverse” to greater heights. Also, because the creators were hampered by the run time, writers had to skip multiple plot points (from the books) and characters so as to get the story flowing in the movies. Fans are also excited to see multiple missed out characters from the movie series such as Peeves the poltergeist, Lee Jordan (who in fact is in the movies, but only for a brief period of time), Charlie Weasley and Ted Lupin among others. With the development of the series, we will be able to see the characters from the books to truly be showcased in the films – finally showing (more) depth in characters such as Nymphadora Tonks, Ginevra Weasley, Fleur Delacour, etc.
However we expect that there will still be a few years before we see and/ or hear about anything related to the “magical web series”. But creating hype this early is not a bad thing – people are now looking forward to the series, while at the same time, there will be no “spoilers”. The books are already out there for those who can’t wait and so are the movies, for those who dislike reading. Rewatching the Harry Potter series in the form of a live-action web series is something the entire Harry Potter fanbase is looking forward to.
Since the entirety of the story is available to the writers this time around, we hope to see a truly magical series.
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