As the Harry Potter franchise hits its 20th anniversary, Warner Bros. is keen to delve deeper into the Wizarding World with new streaming content.
Following the publication of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling professed that she was done with the boy wizard and wanted to concentrate on other projects. Since then, we have seen Harry Potter and the Cursed Child appear on stage, with constant rumors of a movie to the big screen happening at some point, and the third film in the Fantastic Beasts trilogy is about to hit cinemas next year. With the Harry Potter movie franchise now celebrating its 20th anniversary, Warner Bros. are also keen to expand on the Wizarding World with new content for HBO Max, as was reported in THR this week.
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While it initially seemed that the anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’s release would pass pretty much without fanfare, it was announced last month that the cast of the movie would be getting back together for a special show to celebrate the milestone birthday of the franchise that kick started the careers of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint among others. The special will air on HBO Max on New Year’s Day and will feature most of the main players from the franchise, as can be seen in the trailer below.
However, as you would expect, Warner Bros. don’t want to sit on an IP that could be expanded even further than it has already, and with many platforms looking for exclusive content it would appear that Harry Potter is where they want to go for theirs. Along with much focus being current put on their DC properties, Warner Bros. “would love” to expand the Potter story into a TV series. Speaking in a conference held by Bloomberg, Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff commented on what potential she sees in the franchise’s future. She said:
“We would love to develop more original Harry Potter series, and we regularly talk to JK Rowling and her team. Whatever we do has to be true to the canon, and true to the ethos of the Wizarding World, and who Harry is.”
This is certainly not he first mention of a potential Harry Potter TV show being in the works with HBO Max as an expected destination. Earlier this year, rumors of a return to Hogwarts being developed were circulated and although they have been reasonably quiet on that front since, you can expect the chatter to begin again if HBO Max’s reunion special brings in the kind of viewing figures that the platform’s Friends reunion managed in the Summer.
Whether we see a Harry Potter TV series in the near future or not, there is still plenty to comes from the Wizarding World, and despite the Potter story having seemingly come to a conclusion over a decade ago, you cannot keep a popular franchise down for long. With new revivals on the small screen for the likes of The Lord of the Rings, WarnerMedia will certainly be looking to bring out their big guns in order to keep their fair share of the market when going head to head with the likes of Amazon, Apple TV and Netflix in the coming years.
Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts Poster Reunites the Wizarding World
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Anthony Lund
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Anthony Lund is an author, songwriter and puppeteer from a small village in the U.K. with an avid love of all genres of TV and film. As well as keeping up with the lastest entertainment news and writing about it for MovieWeb, he works as a video editor, voice over artist and production designer. A child of the 80s, he is the owner of almost 2000 books, more toys than his children, three Warner Bros. Store Gremlins and a production used Howard The Duck movie script.
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