We knew just a week or so ago that the deal was close to being completed. We now know this deal has been finalized and the series is a go. If you’re unfamiliar with the news, the series will be a direct reboot of the movies. Each season will focus on one of the 7 books by J.K. Rowling. She will also be the Executive Director of the series which makes sense and I’m all for it.
In this article, I’ll discuss each section individually and start with the actual news/trailer for the show.
News
As it stands, the only news we have is what I’ve already written above. However, HBO Max did release an announcement trailer yesterday officially confirming the show is a go. You can see the trailer below;
Extended live-action stories – For
Personally, I have actually never read the books. I’m one of those that can’t concentrate long enough on a book but I can when I’m watching something. I have heard some incredible things about the books. I have also heard there were a lot of things missing from the books or changed for the movies. As each season will focus on an individual book, this does give the team a more creative outlook on what they can do with the series as they will have a much larger runtime across an entire season, in comparison to a movie.
Collider released a solid article of multiple stories that were cut from the movies. As mentioned, I didn’t read the books but these stories seem super interesting. You can read the Collider article by clicking here.
Cast choices – Against
This one is premature purely based on the fact we actually don’t have any castings yet. My point remains with some of the characters. This predominately includes Professor Snape and Hagrid. I just cannot see how anybody could even remotely come close to what Alan Rickman and Robbie Coltrane brought to their roles. Adam Driver as Snape is a close one but I can’t see them pulling the trigger on that. There are other characters such as Draco Malfoy and even Harry himself that I don’t believe could be done better.
It’s also harsh because whilst we won’t mean to do it, we will compare the new actors against their movie counterparts. This unfortunately does mean there will be a lot of comparisons between the two.
It’s Harry Potter – For
I absolutely love the movies. Every year around October, my wife, my son and I do a run-through of the movies. We love it. So, if a reboot can be done right then this will only bode well with fans of the franchise itself. Plus, I don’t think Fantastic Beasts has been as well received as the Harry Potter universe so why not run it back? At least this time they can be given so much more time to do things right.
Harry Potter doesn’t REALLY need a reboot – Against
This does kind of contradict the point above. The films don’t really need to be rebooted. They were brilliant in themselves and only boosted the franchise even further after the books were so successful. This is like the original Star Wars films being rebooted into a series. It doesn’t sit well with me, especially considering The Deathly Hallows Part 2 only came out in 2011.
Opportunities to redeem characters – For
CBR actually released an article of 10 characters that were done better in the books. You can read this by clicking here. There are quite a few characters that could be done so much better but the one that people seem to mention more than anything is Ginny Weasely. She had a much better personality in the movies. She was outspoken, fiery, and never afraid to speak her mind. She was shy around Harry but came around. She also led Dumbledore’s Army when Harry and co were hunting Horcruxes.
We also have a deleted scene in The Deathly Hallows between Harry and Dudley where a level of mutual respect was given between the pair. In the books, Dudley did eventually realize the damage his family inflicted on Harry. It’s baffling why this scene alone was cut from the movie. I’ll post this below. However, this is the biggest FOR argument for me. Despite being torn, this is one of the reasons why I’m heading in that direction. Lastly, we need to see Harry Potter actually properly hold his own. He only ever does it twice in the entire run against Voldemort in The Goblet of Fire and The Deathly Hallows Part 2. Every other time he was given help, including in the first movie.
Budget – Against
The films naturally had a large budget. Often comprising $130m+ in most of the movies. I do feel like as it’s a series, the budget may be smaller and therefore could affect the quality of the show moving forward. Obviously, we don’t know what budget HBO Max will be setting. The Mandalorian currently has a rough budget of $15m per episode but this is through Disney. Hopefully, HBO Max will be able to give a good budget so the show can provide the highest quality.
So as you can see, I am torn on the idea but the more I wrote this article, the more I have swayed to being more FOR the series. This is more due to how some of the characters could be done, especially if J.K. Rowling is going to be directly involved in the series. She will want to ensure the series remains more true to the books than the movies did. It makes sense. If the movies were so perfect and true to the books, this series would never have been questioned. Either way, I’ll watch it and support the universe as I always have done.
