Warner Bros. recently announced that a newHarry Potterreboot TV series will be coming to HBO’s Max streaming service. The show apparently aims to retell the story of theHarry Potterseries in a way that is faithful to the original source material. The series will adapt the books over the course of 10 years, meaning that the actors will grow with the roles in a way that is realistic to the actual timeline of the story. J.K. Rowling is set to be an executive producer for the series as well. Since this is a total reboot, it is assumed that it will feature an entirely new cast in the iconic roles.
While some people are excited about newHarry Pottercontent, a large portion of the fandom, as well as the wider internet, aren’t quite as pleased with the announcement. A lot of people don’t want to see the roles recast, especially since the movie adaptations of theHarry Potternovels aren’t even that old yet. It just feels far too soon foraHarry Potterrebootto be happening, and feels like a desperate attempt to stay relevant amongst the ever-growing collection of franchise media that has become popular.
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What Is The New Harry Potter Reboot About?
As this was just a preliminary announcement, there are not a lot of specific details about the series yet. All that’s known is that it will be adapting the novels, so it will essentially be a lot of the same things that were seen in the films. That means that the show will follow Harry through his time at Hogwarts, from learning he is a wizard to his eventual face-off against Voldemort at the end of his seventh year. Apparently it will be more book-accurate, which is a vague statement considering the fact that the movies weren’t a huge departure from what’s on the page. However, there are a lot of fans who were unhappy with what the movies had to cut because of time, presumably, so the series will allow them more time toinclude every detailand get more in-depth looks at the characters.
Most media that gets a full reboot is pretty old, as usually enough time has passed for it to make sense to tell the story over again. Most modern franchises that have any sort of success will do countless spinoffs and create new media, but none of them ever redo the original story they started with. It doesn’t make sense to, for the most part, since most people will always associate the series withthe original adaptation, and anything that tries to redo that isn’t going to be received well. They’re better off to just make spinoffs featuring the actors and other IP that they already have, and therefore capitalize on what the franchise has already created.
This is the problem that any potentialHarry Potterreboot will run into. The movies are so iconic within pop culture at this point that trying to do the exact same thing over again just feels like a waste of time and resources. It makes sense to want to capitalize on the ever-present success of the franchise, but they should be doing so in a way that expands upon the universe rather than trying to start it over. TheFantastic Beastsmovies (though doomed and not well-executed) and the recent release of theHogwarts Legacyvideo gameare great examples of this - they expand on the world that the franchise has already established, using the familiar appearances and moments from the franchise that fans will recognize and latch onto, while still creating new ones of their own.
Actors likeDaniel Radcliffe as Harryand Emma Watson as Hermione, for example, are so well-known and beloved that it’s hard to imagine anyone else stepping into the roles so soon. The lastHarry Pottermovie came out in 2011, so it’s only been just over 10 years since the movies released, which isn’t enough time to justify a full reboot, especially not in the eyes of fans. The fandom is still incredibly active and growing, so it simply doesn’t make sense to seemingly try and erase everything that came before.
The teaser that was shown usedthe same Hogwarts castleseen in the movies and in all of the franchise branding, as well as the same logo and same musical cues. If they’re reusing so much of the existing IP, what’s the point in making an entirely new version of the story on screen? If they’re going to totally reboot the story, the least they could do is try something new to distinguish the new version of theHarry Potterseries from the old one, but it seems like they just want to have their cake and eat it too by capitalizing on the nostalgia for the existing brand while trying to make something new that will grab people’s attention.
The show will likely be successful, as anything that’s associated withHarry Potteris by default, but it’s absolutely unnecessary. If the show is a success, it will only be because of the existing loyalty the fandom has, not because the public was in any way asking for a new version of this story.
