HBO Is Dropping Harry Potter
HBO is about to cast expelliarmus on the Harry Potter films and fans will no doubt be pretty disappointed by the result.
This article is more than 2 years old
If you’re wanting to do a Harry Potter marathon, you might have to add Peacock to your streaming services, because all eight movies are leaving HBO Max. This wouldn’t be the first time that HBO lost the Harry Potter films, as they had the films when they launched in May 2020 before losing them after 3 months. They got the rights back again in September 2021, but now fans will have to look elsewhere if they want to revisit the Wizarding World.
The movies that will be leaving the platform include Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the Chamber of Secrets, the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Goblet of Fire, the Order of the Phoenix, the Half-Blood Prince, the Deathly Hallows Part 1, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. You have until August 31 if you want to watch the films. HBO won’t be losing all of its Harry Potter content though. You can still watch Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. While these aren’t quite as beloved as the original films, it’s still better than nothing. Also, HBO will continue to be the home of the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts reunion special. The special saw stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson reunite and featured various other members of the cast and crew.
As mentioned, you can still head over to watch all of the Harry Potter films on Peacock. The push and pull between Peacock and HBO for the Harry Potter films is certainly an odd one. Although Warner Bros owns the Harry Potter franchise and HBO, they signed a deal with NBCUniversal (who owns Peacock) in 2016 giving them the TV rights to the franchise. It seems like Warner was able to put together a deal to get the films back a couple of times in the interim, but the deal extends out to April 2025. The navigation between huge media companies is always a weird and delicate process, as one can see with this franchise.
In the meantime, fans have other Harry Potter properties to look forward to in the future. Reportedly, there may be plans for future entries to the Fantastic Beasts franchise, but only if Warner Bros was happy with the commercial and critical performance of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore. Though the film ended up pulling in $405 million worldwide, the performance of the movie and the critical reception were disappointing compared to other Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films. While there were originally five films planned out for the franchise, as of February 2022, producer David Heyman revealed work on a script for the next entry hadn’t begun yet. While the future of Harry Potter films may be uncertain, fans can look forward to the upcoming video game Hogwarts Legacy, which is expected to release in December of this year. The game will let players create their own witch or wizard and attend Hogwarts in the late 1890s.
