A ‘Harry Potter’ TV Show Is Reportedly in Early Development at HBO Max

Are you ready to go back to Hogwarts? If you ever left in the first place? 

Now, this is just a rumor, but apparently HBO Max is eyeing a Harry Potter show as part of its deal with Warner Bros., which owns the rights to the franchise.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, “Executives at HBO Max and Warners are engaged in meetings to find a writer and pitch for a Harry Potter TV series,” but “no writers or talent are currently attached as the conversations are still in the extremely early stages and no deals have been made.” It is so early, in fact, that the official line is that it’s not happening. “There are no Harry Potter series in development at the studio or on the streaming platform,” HBO Max and Warner Bros. told THR.

Okay, sure. But…come on. Before the pandemic, there was a Harry Potter play on Broadway and a Harry Potter theme park in Florida. There are two Fantastic Beasts movies out with another on the way and two more planned. Plus the seven core books, eight movies, and handful of spinoff books prove the series is still beloved by its fans, even if creator J.K. Rowling’s star continues to dim in the wake of her controversial statements on trans issues. It’s hard to imagine HBO Max isn’t at least considering the possibility of a series to lure in new subscribers.

So, what would a hypothetical episodic Harry Potter adaptation look like? Well, it might be akin to HBO’s current, generally successful adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series, another fantasy epic about adolescents in peril. Or they could take the “same universe, new story” route and follow a different crop of Hogwarts students. Fans will surely be begging for a Maurauders series about James, Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew. Well, we shall see what we see! If anything!