Yesterday afternoon, Warner Bros.' rebranded Max streaming service announced that Harry Potter is being rebooted for a TV series which will play out on the streaming platform across a decade.
New actors will take over these iconic roles for what's been described as an "authentic" retelling of J.K. Rowling's novels. The movies remain beloved, of course, but it's been 22 years since The Philosopher's Stone/The Sorcerer's Stone was released in theaters and 12 years since The Deathly Hallows - Part 2 wrapped up the story.
With that in mind, the time is perhaps right for a reboot, especially after the Fantastic Beasts movies struggled to attract the same huge audience as the main Harry Potter series.
Talking about Max's plans for the franchise, HBO & Max Content Chairman and CEO Casey Bloys confirmed the show's budget will be in line with Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon (the latter's first season cost $125 million, so this is going to be a $1+ billion commitment).
"[It] will be that scale or higher," the executive noted. "Whatever it takes to make a quality show."
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was also quizzed about whether this series will restrict the studio from expanding the Wizarding World franchise in other ways. "We’re free to do anything we want. Some areas we need to do with J.K., other areas we have the full ability to go forward."
"This is a full deployment on Max of Harry Potter," he continued. "We can still develop other properties."
A teaser for the Harry Potter TV series has also been released which you can check out below.
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