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Harry Potter reboot at HBO being announced soon?

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
It's gonna be real weird such iconic actors recast.

I think it's good JK Rowling isn't the show runner. She's a novelist, she has no experience running a show.

She also needs good screen writers for her adaptations, because those Fantastic Beasts movies mostly driven be her original film writing were pretty corny and bad, while the original series were consistently great (though, it is easier to adapt excellent works and harder to write original material IMO).
 

Doom85

Member
Being announced soon in a matter of weeks! JK Rowling is directly involved to make sure it stays close to the books but she won't be the show runner. Each book will get its own season.



Boycott this too, please! :messenger_tears_of_joy: I'm a huge HP fan so really excited for this :)


An entire season per book?!

Chicago Bulls What GIF by NBA


Okay, maybe once you hit book 4 or 5 that MIGHT be justified, but particularly books 1 and 2 do not need THAT much screen time to adapt. People often forget the difference in mediums, what might take longer to establish through description and such in a book can often be shown visually in a film or such far more quickly.

I’m just worried, this smells slightly of Peter Jackson‘s Hobbit (for the record, I thought film 1 was great, but 2 and 3 had good moments but a lot of bullshit) as in this just means some stuff will be drawn out and a bunch of unnecessary original material will be stuffed in to justify the runtime.

I doubt this will measure up to the films (for all their faults, most people still see them as a solid adaptation) even if it becomes a more “accurate” adaptation (similarly, I do have criticisms of Kubrick’s The Shining for its deviations from the book, but it’s still far better than the “more accurate” TV series version) . Hell, good luck topping that classic John Williams score.

If HBO were to do a series set in the universe, I’d much rather see a new group of adult characters out exploring the world and dealing with threats rather than revisiting the exact same story in the exact same location.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
An entire season per book?!

Chicago Bulls What GIF by NBA


Okay, maybe once you hit book 4 or 5 that MIGHT be justified, but particularly books 1 and 2 do not need THAT much screen time to adapt. People often forget the difference in mediums, what might take longer to establish through description and such in a book can often be shown visually in a film or such far more quickly.

I’m just worried, this smells slightly of Peter Jackson‘s Hobbit (for the record, I thought film 1 was great, but 2 and 3 had good moments but a lot of bullshit) as in this just means some stuff will be drawn out and a bunch of unnecessary original material will be stuffed in to justify the runtime.

I doubt this will measure up to the films (for all their faults, most people still see them as a solid adaptation) even if it becomes a more “accurate” adaptation (similarly, I do have criticisms of Kubrick’s The Shining for its deviations from the book, but it’s still far better than the “more accurate” TV series version) . Hell, good luck topping that classic John Williams score.

If HBO were to do a series set in the universe, I’d much rather see a new group of adult characters out exploring the world and dealing with threats rather than revisiting the exact same story in the exact same location.

If they adapt this like they did her Strike novels, keeping each season to a small number one-ish hour episodes, I think those early novel seasons would be fine. But yea, they can be read by a child in a day. Not exactly compendiums.
 
An entire season per book?!

Chicago Bulls What GIF by NBA


Okay, maybe once you hit book 4 or 5 that MIGHT be justified, but particularly books 1 and 2 do not need THAT much screen time to adapt. People often forget the difference in mediums, what might take longer to establish through description and such in a book can often be shown visually in a film or such far more quickly.

I’m just worried, this smells slightly of Peter Jackson‘s Hobbit (for the record, I thought film 1 was great, but 2 and 3 had good moments but a lot of bullshit) as in this just means some stuff will be drawn out and a bunch of unnecessary original material will be stuffed in to justify the runtime.

I doubt this will measure up to the films (for all their faults, most people still see them as a solid adaptation) even if it becomes a more “accurate” adaptation (similarly, I do have criticisms of Kubrick’s The Shining for its deviations from the book, but it’s still far better than the “more accurate” TV series version) . Hell, good luck topping that classic John Williams score.

If HBO were to do a series set in the universe, I’d much rather see a new group of adult characters out exploring the world and dealing with threats rather than revisiting the exact same story in the exact same location.
If they give books 1-3 like 10 episodes at 45-60 minutes that would be silly. The movies for books 1-3 generally stayed faithful to the books. Movie 3 left out the Marauders (except the map) and that has pissed off a lot of fans so they definitely need to include that.

Seasons 1-3 should be 7 episodes at 45 minutes.

For books 4-5 it needs to be 9-10 episodes and if they need to then make them 50-110 minutes long.

Movies 4-6 left out a LOT of stuff. 6 wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't spend so much time setting up romances instead of having scenes where Dumbledore gives Harry lessons.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Okay, maybe once you hit book 4 or 5 that MIGHT be justified, but particularly books 1 and 2 do not need THAT much screen time to adapt.
They don't, but I would hope that they intelligently pad it with material that establishes lore and history within the universe.

Or they could have seasons with different numbers of episodes.
 

Doom85

Member
If they adapt this like they did her Strike novels, keeping each season to a small number one-ish hour episodes, I think those early novel seasons would be fine. But yea, they can be read by a child in a day. Not exactly compendiums.

Not familiar with Strike, but we’ll see. I’m just worried this might be a case of Rowling “improving“ her story. She already got a ton of criticism from fans for many detail “updates” she posted online post-Deathly Hollows on the world that felt unnecessary and/or stupid including her most infamous one about how wizards only adapted Muggles’ use of plumbing in the 18th century and prior to that they would piss and shit wherever and “magic away the evidence”. That feels less like an update from the official author and more like an insane fanfiction and yet it’s somehow the former.

Hopefully she took that criticism to heart and thinks more carefully before giving new lore that either adds nothing or frustrates the fans.
 

Saber

Gold Member
Where it says its gonna be a reboot? Why they have any reason to reboot when the movies are still popular?

I think its just another take on Harry Potter universe, not a reboot. With new characters either in the past or the future. I would say future as would be perfect for doing past references.
 

MrMephistoX

Member
I’ll watch it but tbh I am not sure it’s going to be a smash hit: everyone knows the story by now from the films, books or audiobooks. Game of Thrones was obscure enough that people didn’t already know major plot points so it was exciting week to week: I’m just not sure how this has legs? Say what you will about Rings of Power at least they swung for the fences with a mostly original story. I’d love more original Harry Potter stories but I’m not so sure I want more of the same Harry Potter.
 
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Power Pro

Member
The only reason I'd kinda want this is to see a more accurate version of all the novels, but it'd be hard to remove all those actors out of the roles. Even when I started reading the books, the movies were coming out, and so I had an image in my mind of all the characters. They've always just been those people.

You just know they're gonna take this opportunity to make Hermonie black also, just like they did with the stage play. Even though the books described her with pale skin...
 
I'm legit concerned how they will cast this, considering how the 3 principal kids (Dan Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint) are iconic and all the adults are some of the world's most famous British actors. It's going to be really, really hard to recast Harry, Hermione, and Ron just for starters. Then they need to recast all the adults too and somehow replace Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Gary Oldman, Kenneth Branagh, Maggie Smith, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham-Carter, and John Cleese. Plus not only do they need a new Draco Malfoy and Weasley Twins, who were actually in the movies, they somehow need to cast all of the other children who were largely reduced to cameos or entirely cut from the films like Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, the Patils, Neville Longbottom, Fleur Delacour, Viktor Krum, Cedric Diggory, etc.

I don't envy the casting director for a hypothetical HP TV series. The amount of iconic talent they need to replace, plus the massive amount of additional talent they will need to play book characters who were cut or barely appeared in the films, is somewhat mind boggling to comprehend.

Then there's the fact that we don't really know how much J.K. Rowling will be involved. If Harry becomes black and Hermione is trans then I won't even bother. I don't trust Hollywood to respect the source material in 2023 and it's even worse when you realize that Rowling had a really diverse cast of characters back in 1997 in the books, most of which were cut from the movies, long before wokeness was even invented yet.

And of course the biggest issue will be the fact that these children they cast will be committed to 7 seasons, so possibly a decade or more of their lives, making much more content for a TV show than 8 movies, and these children will constantly be compared to the original actors in every tiny meaningless way day and night. The amount of pressure would break an adult, so imagine the child who plays Harry spending every second of every day of the rest of his life being compared to Dan Radcliffe.
 
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RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Excellent news tbf and there's no one better to trust with this than HBO and JKR overseeing to keep the fuckers from doing anything stupid. We're big HP fans in this house, kids have pretty much all the Lego, regularly read the books and the movies are never off the telly.

Definitely looking forward to this be interesting to see who they pick for the characters as the originals are so ingrained into our lives alongwith the stellar supporting cast of actors and who the hell is gonna step into Robbie Coltrane & Alan Rickmans shoes!??

Also lol@reeetards pretty sure they're all getting their knickers in a twist over this, no doubt banning all discussion like the fucking Nazis they are
 

Rockondevil

Member
As a big Potter fan I will watch this, but I'm not ready for it. I know it's been a while but I don't believe it's one of those franchises that needs a reboot as such, regardless of the medium.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
As a big Potter fan I will watch this, but I'm not ready for it. I know it's been a while but I don't believe it's one of those franchises that needs a reboot as such, regardless of the medium.
Tbf the first movie is a hard watch, it's dated pretty badly and Daniels acting is utterly woeful, 2nd definitely ups everything but it wasn't until the excellent (and my favourite) Azkaban that the movies really took off in quality that still looks fantastic today, but aye they don't need a reboot but if I was a WB executive I wouldn't be leaving all those $$$ on the table
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
And of course the biggest issue will be the fact that these children they cast will be committed to 7 seasons, so possibly a decade or more of their lives, making much more content for a TV show than 8 movies, and these children will constantly be compared to the original actors in every tiny meaningless way day and night. The amount of pressure would break an adult, so imagine the child who plays Harry spending every second of every day of the rest of his life being compared to Dan Radcliffe.
Being dependent on a small amount of key cast for such a long time period is pretty risky. Part of me thinks that maybe I'd prefer an anime or CGI version instead. Recasting isn't that big of a deal in that medium, and you can't tell when VAs get older.
 

Winter John

Gold Member
This is probably the absolute fucking nadir of mainstreamHollywood right here, guys.

The bottom of the fucking barrel of creativity. Literally no one there can think of anything new anymore. It’s just reboot, repeat, redo.

Nah. It's just a guaranteed money maker is all. There's still a whole bunch of new and creative stuff out there. Probably more than ever. Severance. Poker Face. Yellow Jackets. White Lotus. Mare Of East Town. Ted Lasso.
 
I am so confused, I'm 150% convinced that this has been confirmed at least a year ago and that there were casting calls put up for a HP tv show on HBO Max.
 

DKehoe

Member
Are you suggesting she's desperate for money?
Nah, clearly she's more than set for life. I assume that following the Fantastic Beasts series falling apart Warner Bros has decided to go back to the core of the franchise. If I remember right there was a quote from a WB exec talking about that a while back.
 

Saber

Gold Member


So what? Are you implyinh she is desperate for money just because of low drops? Lol
I keep what I said because so far what you showed is a very weak reasoning.

Its easier to do a story ala Hogwarts Legacy which have characters around Harry Potter franchise in a different time. Having new characters means not to worry about the original cast and simply use references. Also even if it misses it wouldn't affect Harry Potter movies sucess.
 

Bragr

Banned
It's gonna be like the new LOTR show, they just want the gravy train going, even though it already passed 15 years ago.
 

DKehoe

Member
So what? Are you implyinh she is desperate for money just because of low drops? Lol
I keep what I said because so far what you showed is a very weak reasoning.

Its easier to do a story ala Hogwarts Legacy which have characters around Harry Potter franchise in a different time. Having new characters means not to worry about the original cast and simply use references. Also even if it misses it wouldn't affect Harry Potter movies sucess.
No? Just that when a company makes less money they typically look to make more. Warner Bros Discovery are also looking for things to drive HBO Max subscriptions so from that perspective making a Harry Potter series for it makes sense for both sides.

You asked why they would look to make new ones when the films are still popular and that's true but the amount they are making from them just now is a lot less than them producing something new. I'm sure that as far as old films go the Harry Potter films are relatively valuable for HBO Max subscriptions but they will get way more from this reboot.

It's true that they could do something else in that world since there's so much you can tap into. And the popularity of Hogwarts Legacy showed that people can be interested in that. Personally I'd prefer to see them do something like that rather than just redo the Harry Potter story again. But there was an interview with David Zaslav a few months back where he talked about how they're going to be really focusing on their major franchises and noted that they hadn't made a Harry Potter film in 15 years, which shows he sees a distinction between a Wizarding World film (like the Fantastic Beasts series) and a Harry Potter one.
 
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I'll definitely give it a shot, but I'm a little disappointed it's just adapting the books again. I was hoping for something new akin to Hogwarts Legacy.
 

Saber

Gold Member
No? Just that when a company makes less money they typically look to make more. Warner Bros Discovery are also looking for things to drive HBO Max subscriptions so from that perspective making a Harry Potter series for it makes sense for both sides.

You asked why they would look to make new ones when the films are still popular and that's true but the amount they are making from them just now is a lot less than them producing something new. I'm sure that as far as old films go the Harry Potter films are relatively valuable for HBO Max subscriptions but they will get way more from this reboot.

Making a reboot just because they are losing a few dimes would be moronic. J.K didn't even had the interest into making the sequel of HP movie, let alone allow them to try their luck with a reboot. Making a series around Harry Potter franchise would be far more easier as you wouldn't have to search for a cast to fit the original ones.
 

DKehoe

Member
Making a reboot just because they are losing a few dimes would be moronic. J.K didn't even had the interest into making the sequel of HP movie, let alone allow them to try their luck with a reboot. Making a series around Harry Potter franchise would be far more easier as you wouldn't have to search for a cast to fit the original ones.
Studios are really into reboots as a way to make money. As I mentioned above WBD have specifically talked about making the most of the Harry Potter franchise and did so in a way that emphasised the Harry Potter part, not just the Wizarding World.

How would it be easier? With a reboot you already have the material there that can go for seven seasons and you know the interest is there. It's the safer, easier option. You can promote it as including all those bits from the books that people love that were cut from the films. People will eat that shit up. Sure it's a big ask to get a cast that would be as good as the film series but in terms of production that's a much smaller challenge than coming up with an entirely new thing and doing all the work that goes into that. Fantastic Beasts showed us how that can run out of steam.

Thanks for making my day that much more depressing :messenger_tears_of_joy:

moana-youre-welcome.gif
 
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