A Harry Potter TV series is on its way: here's what you need to know
It’s barely been a decade since the last Harry Potter film was released, but Harry’s story isn’t over yet: a Potter TV show is now in the works.
The show, which will re-adapt the entire book series (one through seven) was first announced in April 2023 by Warner Bros Discovery, before moving to HBO Max earlier this year.
The return to the wizarding world will doubtless have long-term fans marking down their calendars until it comes out – here’s what we know so far.
It’s being released by HBO
The show is coming out on HBO Max in the US – aka the brains behind shows like Succession and House of the Dragon – which was recently rebranded to just Max.
“Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me,” JK Rowling said in a press release announcing the news. “I’m looking forward to being part of this new adaptation which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long form television series.”
It is unclear where it will be shown in the UK, though if it follows other HBO shows like House of the Dragon and Succession it will be availalbe on Sky Atlantic.
Is JK Rowling involved?
Yes, she’s coming on as executive producer – although her stance on gender issues has drawn a lot of controversy and press attention in recent years and has inevitably been raised ahead of this new show.
“Our priority is what’s on the screen,” Casey Bloys, the CEO of HBO, said about it. “Obviously, the Harry Potter story is incredibly affirmative and positive and about love and self-acceptance. That’s our priority, what’s on screen.”
The showrunner has been decided
A slow trickle of names have been announced over the past months. In June 2024, it was announced that Francesca Gardiner (who helped write TV series Succession) had been announced as showrunner – and fellow Succession alumnus Mark Mylod would be serving as director (having cut his teeth with episodes of Game of Thrones and The Last Of Us).
The cast will be all-new
This might seem like a bit of a ‘duh’, but given that Daniel Radcliffe and his contemporaries are well into their 30s and 40s by now, the new cast will be made up of entirely fresh faces.
“My understanding is that they’re trying to very much start fresh and I’m sure whoever is making them will want to make their own mark on it and probably not want to have to figure out how to get old Harry to cameo in this somewhere,” Daniel Radcliffe recently told ComicBook.com.
“So I’m definitely not seeking it out in any way. But I do wish them, obviously, all the luck in the world and I’m very excited to have that torch passed. But I don’t think it needs me to physically pass it.”
That means we’ll soon be reintroduced to a Harry who is 11 or 12 – so start placing your bets on who that’ll be. Nothing (and nobody) has been announced yet.
When’s it coming out?
There’s a while to wait yet: the current estimated release date for the Harry Potter series is 2026.
How many seasons will there be?
Surprisingly, not seven (as per the number of books): Max and Warner Bros confirmed that they were expecting a 10-season arc, which doubtless means that some of the books will be split across multiple years. What that looks like yet we don’t know, but we’ll keep you updated when we find out more.
