Harry Potter series will be “an evolution” of the stories
December 6, 2024
By Nik Roseveare
In April 2023, HBO and Warner Bros Television announced that a “faithful adaptation” of the Harry Potter book series was in the works for streaming service Max. Soon after, Francesca Gardiner (Succession, His Dark Materials, Killing Eve) was confirmed as writer, showrunner and executive producer of the series, joined by Mark Mylod (Succession, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us) as executive producer and director.
At a Max showcase in London on December 5th, the pair took to the stage to give some early insights into what audiences can expect from the big-budget retelling of JK Rowling’s celebrated novels.
“We’re both massively fond of the movies, they’re amazing, what an amazing feat of creative pursuits,” said Gardiner. “It’s a hard act to follow no doubt; it’s something to take those book – so rich – and to pack them into two hours is extraordinary, but we get a bigger sandpit to play in and that really excites me as we get to really dig in, we get to explore Hogwarts, we will see things we haven’t seen, we’ll get to have some fun with Peeves in the corridors.”
“We can plan for where the story is going, we can create the architecture of Hogwarts […] It really is an evolution, our approach is not to undermine what was done previously, that beautiful sense of work, we simply want to evolve that with the [knowledge] of all seven books, we can expand on that,” added Mylod. “Where there is elements we don’t want to mess with, [for example] the Great Hall, [there are] other elements of Hogwarts we will expand on […] because, of course, we have the luxury of long form storytelling; we have eight hours to tell this first book so we can dig into the depths and real crevices of Hogwarts and juxtapose and create similarities between the muggle and magic world, to dig into that with beautiful attention to detail, it’s incredibly daunting, but we are obsessed!”
It was further revealed that the show will commence filming at Leavesden Studios in summer 2025, and that some 32,000 young actors had submitted audition tapes for the lead roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley. The pair vowed to watch every single submission, with Mylod quipping: “We feel strongly about that – apart from the 42 year old man who auditioned for Hermione.”
“We haven’t made any final choices, the next stage is to finalise,” added Gardiner. “It’s daunting, those actors from the films are extraordinary and captured our imaginations globally and we take it incredibly seriously”. With Mylod continuing: “We follow the ethos of the films: to source some of the finest cream of British talent; brilliant theatre actors that we are lucky to have over generations.”
“We are sticking to the correct chronicle ages,” revealed Gardiner, speaking about the wider cast of characters. “So Snape is 31 in 1991, so it’s a very different vibe. And The Dursleys are also a lot younger. You know, Lily and James [Potter] are only 21 when they die. Things like that will make it seem fresh, and we can find the next generation of talent.”
The first season is currently rumoured for a 2026 launch.
During the Max showcase, it was also announced by Salma Hayek that a second season of Like Water for Chocolate has been ordered.