It’s rumor time: There could be a Harry Potter series coming to HBO Max [UPDATE]
Aux Features Literature![It’s rumor time: There could be a Harry Potter series coming to HBO Max [UPDATE]](https://img.pastemagazine.com/wp-content/avuploads/2021/01/15040602/dvkgszpb4fomce72ncau.jpg)
UPDATE, 1/25/2021 @ 12:29 PM: Accio, clarification! While Variety continues to stand by information received from “multiple sources” regarding the early development of an HBO Max Harry Potter series at the time of this update, the streamer and Warner Bros. have issued a statement denying the existence of any such project. “There are no Harry Potter series in development at the studio or on the streaming platform,” the two entities said in a joint statement to Variety. Maybe the current stage of development precedes an official greenlight from the wizards up top. Maybe these “sources” are actually just nargles. Who knows? In any case, we’ve update the headline to reflect this new (non?) development. Below is our original post from 11:07 A.M.
Lending further credence to the theory that 2021 is but a trench coat with three 2020s comically stacked on top of one another inside, HBO Max has reportedly begun its inevitable work of developing a series based on Harry Potter. Per Variety, the network has neither confirmed nor officially announced plans for the series—though we all knew this was coming, yes? It is as if 2021 peeked its head out of a hole in the ground, saw its shadow and declared six more years (at least) of J.K. Rowling discourse.
The particulars of the new Harry Potter series are currently unknown—one of those “the headline is the news and the only news” situations, meaning we have no idea when the series might be set (prequel? sequel? side-quel?) or which characters it might follow. Variety’s report notes that the project is in “very early” development, as if there’s some chance in hell that HBO Max won’t absolutely abuse this license to print cash. The best we can do at the moment is speculate about a bunch of nothing and maybe hope this series has as little to do with its harmful creator as possible.
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Someone posted a photo sometime of Adam Driver suggesting him as a young Snape – the story of how Snape ingratitated himself into the Death Eaters to spy, etc. Not going to lie that a HP world spy series might be cool if driven by a strong actor like Driver. But then again, would Adam Driver commit to such a thing?
The only way anything Harry Potter related should show up on TV is as part of a The Dark Tower TV series.
i’d like to hear a little bit more about this
Sneetches.
Not to spoil anything, but there’s a Harry Potter reference in one of the later Dark Tower novels.
You know, sometimes I wish Discworld got as popular as Harry Potter did instead.
Let’s wait for studios other than Marvel to get the hang of mega-franchises first.
Oh god, that’s what’s going to happen, isn’t it? They’ve wrung the main characters dry, so there needs to be a spinoff about Ernie MacMillan and Dudley’s friend Piers Polkiss and their adventures. Then the limited series about some name announced in the Sorting Hat scene of the fifth book and never heard from again.
I’m sitting here waiting for HBOMax to adapt Fables.
I think Once Upon a Time is currently streaming on Disney+.
… I’ll show myself out.
You know BBC America just started a Ankh-Morpork City Watch TV show, right?I haven’t seen it, and I’ve heard mixed things about it, but it does exist.
In terms of the general culture, yes. I still remember way back when J.K., still just a regular sized asshole then, offhandedly remarked upon how silly and childish fantasy as a genre is, and Pratchett very simply rebuffed her, invoking the ire of her legion of fans. Maybe if their popularity had been reversed, Discworld fans would be a group somewhat less inclined to take everything so seriously.
But in terms of media saturation, I don’t know if it would be any better. I’m not willing to go as far as saying Discworld is fundamentally unfilmable, but it would surely take a more novel approach than the half dozen times it’s been done so far.
Wait, what? Author of eventual unbelievably succesful children’s fantasy franchise that made her a kajillionare says fantasy is silly and childish? Wow. The story in those books was not written by someone who viewed it as silly and childish. Speaking as someone who came to the series as an adult, thought the phenomenon overrated at first, and only really loved the last book, and I’ve not done a reread.
“novel approach” I see what you did there.Honestly though I don’t know why producers are this confused by the existence of a fantasy series with all sorts of real-world lessons and relevance. The Watch sounds like an utter clusterfuck that glosses over all the nuance that made the Vimes books spectacular.
I do too, but then I remember the shithouse adaption that’s been airing on BBC America and I count my blessings that they’re not trying to make a whole bunch of those.
I think Harry Potter was a great series and came about at a great time. I don’t begrudge it or its popularity at all, and think it really had a strong run all the way through. It was a contained seven-book series that had a nice arc and was done. The way it resonated with adolescents, and adults reflecting on their own growing pains, I’m not sure many series really encapsulate that quite as well as the Harry Potter series. It’s a series that really grew up right along with Harry.
That said, Discworld was great and I would love to see it get its time in the spotlight as well. I think they are both great, but for different reasons.
No one asked or cares. Sorry about your empty shitty life
Meh. I guess my kid’ll be into it.
Yeah, it’ll be the Baby Shark of 2021!
I hope they get to put their fantastic aging software to use:
That picture somehow looks like they are 60 years old but also kids wearing their parents fancy clothes.
I have no idea how they managed to make Ginny look 60 and 6 at the same time. Apparently they all just got bigger noses and a few wrinkles added.
Interesting trivia. They didn’t have to age Ron at all.
Too many gingers.
Harry Potter’s a lot more fun when viewed from the Weasley family POV. Assimilate!
I’m going to have to ask my wife what that means.This is more my speed: “Ever seen Harry Potter . . . on WEEEEEED?
By the time they’re ready to film this turkey, that’s what the actual cast is going to look like.
It supposed to be a 19 year time jump, so far everyone has aged a lot more gracefully in the 10 years since filming ended. Still waiting to see what the hell happened with Dumbledore that made him go from 1920’s Jude Law in a 3 piece suit to 1991’s Richard Harris in a pointy hat and robe.
More feasible than Richard Harris becoming Michael Gambon over the 6 week summer break.
To be fair to the HP hair and makeup departments, they made Ginny look like shit there, so I’d say Mission Accomplished on that one.
Based on metatext from JK Rowling herself, the series revolves around the fight to keep the ghost of Myrtle Warren out of the wrong bathroom.
“BLAST IT, Myrtle! We need all the floor space we can get in here!”
i’m so tired of the jk-is-bad take (not because she isn’t, its just a go-nowhere story now) but this is fucking hysterical.
On the other hand, anytime a bad take is made public then a good take needs to be made x10 because the public are morons.
as a son of the midwest, and (envious) friend to many people are are aggressively NOT on the internet, I disagree – I think the public mostly don’t care, not about trans people, not about whatever dumb shit the villain du jour is being hateful about, most people are NOT plugged in to the outrage machines (like this very website lol).what I mean is AV Club doesn’t need to brow beat about how evil JK Rowling is, nor does JK Rowling need to be loudly transphobic, but neither really matter because normal people, real people, don’t give a shit, and in their not-giving-a-shitness, they’re much, much more likely to be accepting of difference. ignoring jk rowling is better for the public than barking down jk rowling, 100% of the time.
normal people, real people, don’t give a shitDo you have any trans friends? I do. I give a shit. Am I not normal? Do I not exist? Silence is consent.
I do have trans friends, and I care about them, and their needs, and their rights. What I (or they, not that they speak for all trans people, of course) don’t give a shit about is what JK Rowling says.I think you might be misunderstanding what I’m trying to say. I of course give a shit about trans folks. What I don’t give a shit about (and what I’m saying ‘normal’ ‘real’ people don’t give a shit about either) is the CONSTANT crusading against JK Rowling, or any other celebrity who keeps coming up with dumb shit to say about trans people or trans rights or whatever. Similarly, the constant and exhausting outrage & response to those celebrities. What I’m saying (perhaps poorly) is two things:
(1) off line, there majority of people don’t care what JK Rowling says, so her transphobia isn’t really important or meaningful, which leads to …(2) that our (my, anyway, I won’t speak for you) energy can, and should, be better spent trying to secure and protect rights for our trans friends, family members, partners, etc INSTEAD of beating the dead horse of JK Rowling’s bad opinions.
I feel that same feeling as you are about a lot of the topics. What I consider when I feel it, as you should have done before your commenting, is that your complaining is not actually about how effective other people are in their actions, but the fact that you don’t want to see the ‘constant crusading’. Your consideration isn’t important in causes people feel are important, and if you are actually genuine about “caring” for your trans people, you allow people to push causes you might find irritating, and if you need to get involved you can do better than just scolding people based on your whims.
I’m sorry I forgot the av club comments section was somehow above “scolding people based on my whims” lmfao.Relitigating jk rowling again (and again, and again) does NOT do anything to secure trans people rights, and it DEFINITELY is irritating.Neither of those facts change the fact that what this dude who’s post I commented on said something funny as shit.
Nah dude, say whatever you want, no one is stopping you- but if all you have to say is a load of bullshit, then people will call you out on it. It happens to the best of us.Regarding Rowling- it’s not that it does nothing, it’s that it does less than you think others want it to do- what does nothing is your complaint. You pretending to be the steering wheel of a social cause just gets the myriad of people that responded to you rightfully calling out your complaint as asinine. And ultimately, like I said before, it really doesn’t matter to anyone but you that you find it irritating. Time to be an adult, grin and bear it- it really doesn’t affect your life much, and you’d be better off not distracting yourself from actually doing something that will help your trans people.
this is literally my point, in the same way what I’m saying is meaningless, so is what jk rowling says lmfao.
And you may be right, but presenting your nihilism on the topic as if it’s any more constructive than the initial point is disingenuous. You are less than constructive in your complaining, hence why you’re just going in circles with every response to your comments.
I came at you with some heat, and I appreciate you came back with a calm, measured response. And I appreciate that you have trans friends and you say you care about them. But in the interest of candor, and why I was so curt initially, it (still) sounds like you’re saying:People who dehumanize and denigrate trans individuals and those who speak out against those aggressors are somehow equally bad. Criticism of transphobia is distracting from the enjoyment of an entertainment franchise I’m not intending to put words in your mouth (I hate it when people do that) but that’s at least the connotation I’m getting from your argument. Further – I have to strongly disagree with the premise that Rowling’s repeated and ongoing instances of transphobia don’t matter. I’d argue that a beloved children’s book author being a vocal participant in the public discourse means her and any of her work is fair game for loud and uncompromising opposition. Kids are getting bullied and developing psychological scars because of the views and attitude Rowling is enforcing. Teens are killing themselves. Trans women are being murdered. Finally, it’s kind of a strange take that speaking out against transphobia somehow detracts from working to secure and protect rights of trans people. I can multitask. I can be mad about Rowling’s garbage takes online and also check in on my trans friends and give to trans causes. I don’t know your trans friends. You seem to believe they “don’t give a shit about” what JK Rowling says. I find that hard to believe but I can only take you at your word. I would argue that what JK Rowling says is part of a pervasive effort to demonize trans individuals, “other” trans individuals, and reject strides towards normalizing and accepting trans individuals. And I suspect if you were to frame it that way for your trans friends, they would care about it. And they would appreciate you speaking out against it.Last thing I’ll say is any usage of terms like “normal people” or “real people” can be pretty loaded and is bound to set someone off, which I think is what really upset me.
There’s nothing to appreciate about my having trans friends, that’s an inconsequential element of my relationship to them, which is the way I’ve come to understand their feelings towards issues such as this – that they merely are, or rather, should be left alone to merely be.With that said, I appreciate, that you appreciate, my response. I, in turn, appreciate your response to my response. I 100% think people who denigrate and dehumanize trans people are infinitely, immeasurably worse than the good intentions of people who speak out against those detractors.And I agree with you, that people can multitask, that we can sit here and talk about JK Rowling AND elect people who won’t use their positions of governmental power to harm trans people, to donate time, money, and attention to organizations and individuals who will protect and support trans people.But, I still think, in this extremely specific case of JK Rowling, there’s nothing left to be said. She’s wrong, she won’t admit she’s wrong, there’s no changing her mind, and that’s that. In this specific case, what’s best is to let her sit in her mansion and be so very wrong. Some people will stop buying her books, other people won’t buy video games or watch movies based on the IP, and so on and so forth.I hope this makes more sense as we circle back to the original comment I’d responded to, which was the first interesting, new, and goddamn funny thing I’ve seen in this conversation in years.peace & love friend.
Silence is consent?Good luck making that stand up in court.
“Normal people” I don’t know you, but shit like that means you’ve probably never been on the receiving end of any kind of identity based discrimination… 🙄
I don’t know youGo ahead & run with this skippy.
People can be two things. I’d say if you made the choice to be accepting of difference then you do care. And if you really don’t care about others then you are a moron.
And if the public really don’t care, then they won’t care to read the bad or good takes anyway, so it’s not like it bothers them.
And if the public really don’t care, then they won’t care to read the bad or good takes anyway, so it’s not like it bothers them.They don’t, that’s what I’m saying. There are more people who, when faced with the issues of trans rights, will shrug and say ‘hey if it makes ‘em happy’ and go on with their day. Those people, the shrug and move on folks, do not give a shit what jk rowling says, which is why i am saying it is pointless to go on and on talking about her stupid opinion.
Logically then discussing what Rowling said isn’t for those people, writing articles about what Rowling said isn’t for that audience.
But there are people who do want to discuss it, there is an audience for those articles, which is why there’s a point to continue talking about it. It won’t inconvenience the former and will be of interest for the latter.
You may be irritated by these continued articles and discussions, but you don’t have to read them. That’s on you. You don’t get to decide what other people talk about or if it helps/doesn’t help. You have an opinion, others have theirs, all can be expressed unless the mods say otherwise. Deal with it.
You may be irritated by these continued articles and discussions, but you don’t have to read them. That’s on you. You don’t get to decide what other people talk about or if it helps/doesn’t help. You have an opinion, others have theirs, all can be expressed unless the mods say otherwise. Deal with ittrue, and back atcha.
I am dealing with it by expressing myself. You seem to have a problem with this.
I’m not the one who’s said they’re tired or irritated by this.
Your solution seems to be you wish people would stop talking about it.
Your wish isn’t granted. Like I said, deal with it because we already have.
Hey!
I thought Rowling revealed that wizards don’t go to the bathroom, they just teleport poop from out of their bodies.
It might be good if Rowling’s not writing the scripts (like she is for those mediocre to bad Fantastic Beasts movies).
She didn’t write the script for Cursed Child either, right? Just sold the rights? I didn’t see it but it wasn’t better received than the Fantastic Beasts movies. I know we have to retcon JKR as bad at everything because of her transphobia, but she IS a good writer. She can write plot.
She can write plot. Have you seen the Fantastic Beasts movies? They are complete garbage. She had one plot in her and she’s simply retreading that with Fantastic Beasts, only in the worst way. Btw she had a lot of input on Cursed Child so she’s not off the hook for that one either.
Counterpoint: have you read the Harry Potter books? Whatever else she’s done, those are solidly plotted.
The first like four are, after that it quickly becomes a mess.
Oh simmer down. I said she had one plot in her which is obviously The Harry Potter series. I loved those books, but the rest of her Potter world stuff is garbage. Fantastic Beasts is practically unwatchable.
Didn’t mean to come off harsh. But each book in the series is has its own plot, unique to the series. The overall plot is pretty standard, I’d say; individually, the books are handled well (as another poster said, the later ones are more susceptible to scrutiny). As such, I’m surprised that someone who put four-to-seven solid plots together has been pretty bad at it since.
It’s not that surprising. Just because she’s a good novelist doesn’t mean those skills automatically translate to screenwriting. A lot of her value as a novelist is in all the layers of detail she builds into her writing. The last three Harry Potter books averaged about 200,000 words long. If I remember right, the script for a 2 1/4 hour movie is somewhere south of 20,000, perhaps significantly so. Not to insult screenwriters, but that’s a lot less work than writing one of those novels. And in the case of the Fantastic Beasts stories, I think the disparity shows.
You know they give an Oscar out for best adapted screenplay, because that is a skill and a talent all on its own. I’d say it actually requires a great deal of work to condense 200,000 words down into a coherent and entertaining 2 hour movie. It’s pretty obvious by now that Rowling cannot write a decent script. Even Warners knows it as they brought in a script doctor for the third Fantastic Beasts movie.
I haven’t seen any of the movies. Just the HP books and the Cormoran Strike books. She’s really good at what she does.
The Strike books are great, both with their central mysteries and the characters.
lol harry potter’s plot is just a basic-ass heroes journey.
No, it’s a basic ass-heroes journey.
No, your confusing Harry Potter with that Ass-Heroes Creed movie, staring Michael Fassbender.
Hey, you followed Basic Ass-Heroes, too? One of the great Tumblrs lost to stupid Puritan ToS rules.
The overarching plot of the series, yes. Individually, most of them are really good mysteries. They also jungle and intermingle multiple subplots. I don’t know why she’s failed so hard at everything else, but the HP books are very well crafted.
I’m not retconning her as a bad writer. I’m saying she’s a terrible screenwriter, and both the scripts for both of the Fantastic Beast movies show that (I’m also not fond of David Yates as a director for Harry Potter films, but they’re not all terrible).
Hey, get that money JKR. Pay for your grandkids to go to university. Personally I don’t get expanded universes. I loved loved the books, but never had any desire to buy the ancillary ones, like Fantastic Beasts, or the sequel, like Cursed Child. Other people like them, great. The originals were enough for me. In general, expanded works ruin the original thing, but I wouldn’t turn down the money either. There used to be an insane amount of HP fanfic. Probably still is. I remember it from the live journal days because I’m an old. Most of it was cliched Hollywood high school dramas, but with the HP characters. This tv show sounds like that. Setting the stories in the Harry’s parents era of Hogwarts wax popular, because no actual stakes or plot to get in the way of the teen romance.
Rowling already has enough money for her grandkids to buy a university.The fatal flaw of most “expanded universes” (or, as we used to call them, “Spin-offs”) is that there’s an inability to fully divorce themselves from the story/characters of the original successful property. Fantastic Beasts was originally pitched as “An all-new story in the world of Harry Potter” before pretty quickly devolving into full-on prequeldom. I would be at least mildly interested if this project was genuinely going to tell a new story about wizards and magic without pulling in multiple primary characters from the core franchise, but I’m guessing that won’t be the case.
True. And funny, because if you read Harry Potter fanfic, people love the world of Harry Potter more than they like the characters. It’s Hogwarts and magic, but with either a self-insert or some incredibly minor character like Harry’s parents. Frasier was a great spinoff, but it completely abandoned the original show. There were a few episodes where a Cheers character shows up, and they’re terrible. Frasier worked by being a spinoff in name only. You would think the world of magic she created would be deep enough that she wouldn’t have to reference things we know to keep us interested. Guess not. Prequels are strange to begin with, though. By definition you’re trying to build tension for an event where we already know what happens.
I saw the original cast of Cursed Child on Broadway and the stagecraft for the production was unlike anything I had seen before. For lack of a better word it was magical. Really helped to distract from the fact that the play itself was terrible fan fiction. And yet I’d still recommend it.
My partner and I got stupidly lucky when we were in NYC to see two other productions and I was able to snare Saturday tickets to both performances. It was AMAZINGLY staged; I hadn’t felt that enveloped since seeing The Lion King as a teenager and all the animals came down the aisles. At the time, the story wasn’t my jam, but the staging forgave all.Then I bought the play, READ the damn thing and couldn’t believe that’s the story I saw on stage. I’ve read HP fanfiction that was much better done.
I’d honestly trade the AVClub covering Trump every fourth article if they could manage to not mention 2020 in every single article.
If you make it every 8th article, in 100%.
The sad truth is that Warner and Universal have so much money invested in Harry Potter being a generation spanning franchise that JK Rowling’s could start shooting people in the street and they would still be pushing crap that makes her money.
I’m kind of a little surprised with all the money that Warner is spending that they haven’t considered just selling the film and tv rights to Universal and let them deal with all the issues.
I wonder if the studios have discussed buying the rights to Harry Potter outright (like Disney did with Star Wars, but for different reasons).
I’m sure it has come up but I don’t think Rowling’s would be down for it. She is notorious about her control of the property. There are some interesting stories about how the whole Harry Potter theme park stuff happened. Disney really wanted Harry Potter but Disney didn’t want to give up a huge portion of their parks to it and Rowling wasn’t having that. Universal basically told her they would do anything she wanted, which is why Universal Florida has train that now connects Island of Adventure with the Studio park even though its a logistic nightmare to run
I’m kinda tickled by the idea of WB having to bring Rowling into business meetings on a dolly with a straightjacket and hockey mask, like Hannibal Lecter. “Just make sure the pen’s still there after she signs off on the Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes series…”
I mean, the franchise still makes a ton of money, and AT&T needs as many valuable IPs as they can get, especially ones outside of DC.
obama years are back, baby.
Can’t wait for Lena Dunham’s Girls reboot!
Let the whinging commence, but personally, I wouldn’t mind a spinoff series if — if! — they can somehow get Brendan Gleeson back as Mad-Eye Moody.
A reminder of where the ledger is now:Plus side: Created a series of books the entire world loves, shows a considerable willingness to engage with fans, has given so much money to charity it took her off the list of billionaires, loudly defended the casting of a Black actress to play Hermione in the stage show from trolls, appears to have pretty liberal politics, has denounced Donald Trump at every turn.Minus side: Only on board with 95% of the current orthodoxy surrounding transgender people.Apparent Result: JK Rowling is irredeemably evil, and must be denounced in every future mention of anything related to Harry Potter.
They were all about it until they found out she was pairing with the GoT/Confederate States of America guys to make a series where Harry decides if you were born a muggle you can’t be a pure wizard, doxxes Hermione, then covers for Draco after he murders her.
I don’t understand how cancel culture works when I keep seeing people that are cancelled never suffer any consequences except getting called out on twitter lol.
Yeah, but they REALLY don’t like being called out on Twitter.
Well, after four years of hate-filled rants, Twitter may ban your account, but as long as JK Rowling doesn’t try to overthrow the legitimately elected government, they’ll be okay.
That’s because you’re really stupid I guess
just a dobby.
Reboot. Recast with new actors and non-token representation. Devote a full season to each book. The only additional material you add in is what Rowling has added to the lore after the fact (Dumbledore is gay, Hermione is black, etc.) Bring back the original cast in featured roles (teachers, Ministry of Magic folks, Order of the Phoenix, etc.) Let’s fucking do this.
lmao I just realized all of her post release edits were just pandering to minority crowds yeesh. Just put it in the book.
Even if you’re one of the people who subscribes to completely separating the artist from the art, and thus would be okay making a series like this, at the absolute bare minimum you have to accept that you’re going to be pissing off a huge amount of people, and the worst thing you could possibly do is act surprised about that.
I propose each book faithfully redone (no Kloves) in 10-hour seasons. The kids will have to be worked to death, of course.It would work better as animated, since kids sometimes don’t age as expected. And, Hermione really needs those squirrel teeth. (JKR will not approve, though, as Spielberg wanted to do them animated, and she nixed it.)
Well, I am kind of done with Harry Potter universe after JK Rowling ruined her own brand all by herself. The books and movies will always be amazing, but after the mess of Fantastic Beasts series so far, I lost interests.Good thing we have other series to follow in the new streaming age.
Only really interested if it’s going to a faithful animated adaptation of the books or if JK Rowling isn’t involved creatively.
I’d watch something like Ted Lasso but with Quiddich
Eh, considering two out of three leads are pretty much TV actors already… sure, why not. Make them teachers or something.
It may not be happening, but it’s definitely going to happen.
If it’s half as good as the Harry Potter movies it’ll be twice as good as the Fantastic Beasts movies!
I actually think a “Lower Decks” – style show of regular wizard/muggle kids muddling through Hogwarts while Harry and the others deal with all of their massive drama could be pretty funny.
Jesus Christ who cares