Harry Potter Series Reboot With All New Cast Confirmed By HBO
HBO Max will be turning the Harry Potter books into a series with a brand new cast.
Early in April, there were rumors that HBO Max was planning to reboot Harry Potter as a television series with an entirely new cast. Now, Variety confirms that HBO solidified a deal with problematic author J.K. Rowling to turn each one of her books into its own season on the new show. According to the CEO of HBO & Max Content, Casey Bloys, “this new Max Original series will dive deep into each of the iconic books that fans have continued to enjoy for all of these years.”
As his quote indicates, HBO had some other big news in addition to formally announcing the Harry Potter reboot. After a difficult merger that resulted in canceling high-profile properties such as the nearly-finished Batgirl movie starring Oscar winner Brendan Fraser, HBO Max and Discovery+ are combining into a new brand that is simply known as Max. While some audiences expressed confusion over the rebranding (especially because “Max” is how cable rival Cinemax often refers to itself), most fans are interested in whether turning Harry Potter into a television show will better be able to capture the magic (so to speak) of the original books.
Rowling certainly seems to think so, as she praised “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books.” And while it’s obvious that Max can cover more ground than the movies did with their shorter runtime, it’s an open question whether fans will tune in for more Harry Potter content that doesn’t feature series mainstays Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson. In addition to moving on from the franchise, these actors have all opposed Rowling’s transphobia, leading some fans to think that the once-beloved author has greenlit the new television show so that the new faces of her famous characters might be less likely to call her out online.
While this new Harry Potter show has not been cast yet, some fans have been wondering if a show that is meant to preserve “the integrity” of Rowling’s books means that they must account for some of the retcons she has performed over the years. The biggest example of this is that after Black actor Noma Dumezweni was cast as Hermione in the West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Rowling responded to criticism over the casting in a rather bold way. She went on Twitter in late 2015 to say that Hermione having “white skin was never specified” and that she “loves” having a Black Hermione, so now many fans are curious if this means the new show will cast a Black Hermione or if Rowling will backpedal from her previous statement.
While we love the idea of more diversity in Hollywood, casting a Black Hermione might lead to some fan backlash once the show starts adapting the later books in which Hermione is basically the only Hogwarts student to take a stand against wizards using House Elves as slaves (kind of awkward when the only prominent Black student has to put up with all of her white colleagues telling her slavery isn’t bad). Then again, some pessimistic critics wonder if the new Max show will even make it to those seasons. After all, if the show ends up floundering like the Fantastic Beasts franchise did, then the idea of rebooting Harry Potter might die, and all without Fawkes around to try to bring it back to life.
