Warner Bros. Discovery Wants To Make More Movies From This Iconic Franchise
Warner Bros. Discovery wants to make more Harry Potter movies.
Considering the Harry Potter films have grossed a combined total of nearly $8 billion worldwide, and that’s not including the spinoff franchise Fantastic Beasts, it makes sense that Warner Bros. Discovery is looking to expand the Wizarding World. According to MovieWeb (via Variety), the company’s CFO, Gunnar Wiedenfels, revealed during a panel at Morgan Stanley’s investor conference on Wednesday that the studio is ready to delve further into the Harry Potter universe. He said the “massive success” of the video game Hogwarts Legacy “shows that there is so much opportunity and we’re just starting to expand that.”
Although the initial Harry Potter film franchise came to an end in 2011 with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows – Part 2, the series continues to captivate audiences around the world. While discussions regarding the expansion of the Wizarding World came about long before Warner Bros.’ merger with Discovery, various shakeups at the studio seemingly halted a number of projects. Now that the dust has finally settled on that front, it looks like the company is ready to put some serious effort into capitalizing on some of its tentpole IPs, with Wiedenfels saying, “We’re starting to make progress.”
Based on the wildly popular book series by author J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter film franchise first arrived on the big screen in 2001, with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. After Deathly Hollows – Part 2, Warner Bros. didn’t waste any time when it came to adapting Rowling’s spin-off series Fantastic Beasts. Although the first two entries in the movie franchise were massive financial hits, last year’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore had a disappointing box office performance, leaving the fate of the Wizarding World in question.
Fortunately, based on what Wiedenfels had to say at the recent Morgan Stanley investor conference, it sounds like Warner Bros. Discovery has every intention of developing more Harry Potter movies. With that said, after eight films, a spinoff franchise, a video game, and a stage play, it’s unclear how the studio intends to expand the Wizarding World. The most obvious would be to turn the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child into a motion picture, particularly since fans have been campaigning for a film adaptation of the wildly popular production for years.
Additionally, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has previously shown an interest in bringing The Cursed Child to the big screen. Picking up nineteen years after the events of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the story centers on Harry Potter, now Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry of Magic, and his son, Albus Severus Potter, who’s preparing to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Since the play is comprised of several other prominent characters from the Harry Potter series, including Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy, and Ginn Weasley, it would serve as the perfect launchpad for future projects in the Wizarding World to branch off from.
As of now, there are no confirmed Harry Potter projects in the works, unless you count an upcoming tour launching later this year in Tokyo. Nevertheless, Wiedenfels’ recent update was undoubtedly encouraging for fans of the series. We’re definitely excited to see what the future has in store for the Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
