Like so many people, I love Harry Potter. Really, I do. As a young kid, I read the series, listened to audiobooks, and watched the movies countless times. I even bought the French versions of the books to improve my fluency. Even in high school, if there’s ever a rainy day or I need some background noise to study, I turn on one of the movies to relax. Harry Potter has been a comfort my entire life. So, inevitably, when I heard that HBO was remaking the books into a TV series, you would assume I would be overjoyed. Quite the opposite: I prayed HBO wouldn’t botch my beloved series.
Instead of getting overwhelmed with my opinions and emotions, I wanted to examine why I hesitated to support this new project. The series, set to air on Max in 2026, will star a new cast following Harry Potter’s life at Hogwarts. Like the original movie series, seven parts will be filmed over a decade, meaning we will see another group of kids grow up in the spotlight as Daniel, Emma, and Rupert did. The purpose of the show is to be book-accurate, including events and characters that were excluded from movies like Peeves the Poltergeist and Winky the House Elf. Although very early in development, there are talks of Succession writer Francesca Gardiner for the teleplay.
I can’t help but feel like this show is coming at an inopportune time. Remakes like Mean Girls are rapidly dominating Hollywood to the point of fatigue and burnout for most disenchanted audiences. Shows like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are a cheap attempt to lure people in with a well-known story. With all this failed media, HBO’s series seems like a combination of the two, just following the trend without regard to the show’s quality. A remake would be understandable if the Harry Potter film series ended decades ago, but the final film was released in 2011, and all of the movies hold up very well.
The new series is marketed under the guise of being extremely book-accurate, but the movies are already fairly book-accurate. Of course, the movies are much shorter, so they have to exclude some details, but if you crave details, simply read the books instead. The new series will never be able to recreate the essence of what makes the movies so magical, so making the series book-accurate can’t save it. That’s precisely the problem: the new series is trying to recreate what the films had. While HBO has only released a teaser trailer, it uses the same soundtrack and Hogwarts castle silhouette as the movies; no new artistic liberties are being taken. The movies captured lightning in a bottle with a perfect cast, a beautiful score, and masterful cinematography that can’t be replicated without feeling like a hollow shell of what once was. Every choice the actors make and every new score composed will be subject to public scrutiny and comparisons to the films.
The Harry Potter movies have so much soul and were a labor of love for everyone involved. There isn’t even much information about the new show yet, so I do not want to pass judgment; however, in a time where most media’s sole purpose is to turn a profit, I am worried that the show will lack the originality and heart that ingratiated the original series to the public. Honestly, HBO should create a show focusing on Harry’s dad, James, and his friends called the Marauders.
