Why A Marauders Movie Would Be So Much Better Than Rebooting Harry Potter
Fans would much rather have a Marauders movie than a Harry Potter reboot.
Warner Bros. Discovery recently announced plans to completely reboot the Harry Potter franchise by turning each book into a season of a television series. Publicly, the studio claimed that a reboot would give JK Rowling’s story more screen time to better dive into the lore and events of the books, but the studio isn’t fooling anyone—this is a cash grab, end of story. And if the studio insists on creating more Harry Potter content for the hefty paycheck, then they should actually give the people what they want, like a Marauders movie.
If the success of the Harry Potter video game Hogwarts Legacy proved anything, it’s that the Harry Potter franchise is still an extremely lucrative investment, despite the controversy surrounding the fantasy world’s creator. So it’s no surprise that after Hogwarts Legacy drove over a billion in revenue in the two and a half months that it’s been out, Warner Bros. Discovery would want to continue the cash flow. However, if this really were about giving the fans more Harry Potter content to enjoy and not about making a buck, Warner Bros. Discovery might want to rethink its strategy and create something new that the fans have actually been asking for—a Marauders movie.
Harry Potter was a magical phenomenon, unlike anything anyone had experienced before. It allowed for a whole generation of children to grow up with the magic through events like the Midnight Madness parties that went along with the release of the books, or dressing up for movie premieres with the release of the movies. Watching the Harry Potter movies when they marathon during the holidays has become a nostalgic tradition that many still enjoy, despite the fact that the more we grow up, the more we start to see the flaws hidden in the details.
The movies remain a treasure to those who were touched by the magic as kids, as well as a highlight of great British cinema as some of the greatest English actors were a part of the films (let’s just take a moment to remember how perfect Alan Rickman was as Snape, or at how Dame Maggie Smith flawlessly embodied Professor McGonagall). To reboot the franchise with an entirely new cast is a disservice to the fans as well as the actors that made the movies so successful. If Warner Bros. Discovery insists on keeping the Harry Potter universe alive, it’s time to create something new.
Despite her faults, JK Rowling did spend an incredible amount of time developing an intriguing world that is filled with many stories waiting to be told. One such story is the tale of the Marauders, aka a film about Sirius Black, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin while they were at Hogwarts. Harry Potter fans have been asking for a high-budget Marauders movie (or, heck, make it a TV show if Warner Bros. really wants that long-term content commitment) for years.
A Marauders movie would flesh out the backstory of characters that fans already know and love without throwing out the movies that built the franchise. The film could dive deeper into the relationships between the four Hogwarts buddies, as well as the heartbreaking friends-to-enemies arc between Lily Evans and Severus Snape. A Marauders movie could be a chance to change the Harry Potter Wizarding World franchise as we know it.
The Fantastic Beasts franchise was Warner Bros.’ attempt to tell a new story in the Wizarding World, but they did it all wrong. Instead of doing something new and exciting, they threw together a poorly planned set of films that basically told the same story the original Harry Potter films did, only worse. Instead of fighting a big bad like Voldemort or Grindelwald, a Marauders movie could change the tone of the franchise and create something adventurous and fun or even tell a coming-of-age story that audiences can relate to.
It’s time to give the people what they want, and they definitely don’t want a Harry Potter reboot.
