Warner Bros. Discovery‘s Harry Potter television series is set to begin filming next summer. They have found a costume designer in Holly Waddington, who recently won an Oscar in her craft for Poor Things starring Emma Stone. Killing Eve scribe Laura Neal has joined the writers room. Deadline exclusively profiled showrunner Francesca Gardiner with quotes from her colleagues and more.
The show may enlist a key player from the films to bring viewers back to the world of Hogwarts: Framestore, British VFX company. The open casting call note seeking out the show’s Harry, Ron and Hermione stipulates that the actors must be between the ages of 9 and 11 in April 2025.
At its Max streaming event in April 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery confirmed a new era is coming for Harry Potter fans. The company announced a TV series based on all seven books about the boy wizard written by J.K. Rowling. On June 25, it was revealed that the series is moving to HBO in a rethink of WBD’s big-budget streaming strategy.
See below for the most current answers to the most important questions about the project.
What is the Harry Potter TV series about?
“This new Max Original series will dive deep into each of the iconic books that fans have continued to enjoy for all of these years,” said Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO & Max Content about the project, which he also assured fans would be “a faithful adaptation.”
Early reports had each season of the series focusing on one book in the Harry Potter book series, which consists of seven novels, but Bloys said the project would run for “10 consecutive years,” which would seem to defy the 1 season, 1 book assertion. For those who say Fantastic Beasts could be leveraged to provide 10 seasons over 10 years, WBD brass said specifically during the announcement that FB will not be a part of the series.
Has HBO’s ‘Harry Potter’ TV series started production?
Not yet, but HBO confirmed that the show will start shooting in the summer of 2025 at Leavesden. Showrunner Francesca Gardiner and EP Mark Mylod made a surprise appearance at the Max Showcase in London to reveal this big step in production.
Who is creating the Harry Potter series?
Succession duo Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod have signed up as its writer and director, respectively. Gardiner will serve as showrunner and executive producer, and Mylod will direct multiple episodes in addition to serving as executive producer.
It had taken a bit, given the initial announcement was in April 2023, but in recent months Warner Bros. invited a select group of creatives in to pitch ideas for what the series could be. They were Martha Hillier, Kathleen Jordan, Tom Moran and Michael Lesslie. Now, the streaming service and Warner Bros. Television narrowed it down to Jordan, Moran and newer addition Francesca Gardiner, sources said.
The writers room now also includes Laura Neal, scribe of Killing Eve.
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Jordan created Netflix series Teenage Bounty Hunters. Jordan is also working with the Orange Is The New Black streamer on The Decameron, which received a series order in 2022.
It’s an interesting mix of Brits and Americans, most of whom have some experience working with streamers and many of whom have shepherded projects in the sci-fi/fantasy space.
We’ve heard that the group of writers were commissioned by Max to create pitches for a series reflecting their take on the IP. Rowling is understood to be involved in this pitching process. The trio will be able to hone in on their pitches for the next couple of months, with a decision on who gets the job expected in June.
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Framestore VFX is in talks to recreate the magical world it brought to life in the eight movies adapted from J.K. Rowling’s seven books. Warner Bros. Discovery is also speaking to other companies about visual effects, but Framestore is in prime position to clinch a contract, we hear. A deal is not yet done.
Costume designer Holly Waddington, who recently won an Oscar for her work on Emma Stone starrer Poor Things, has been recruited for the series, Deadline reported exclusively.
The series is expected to be on air in 2026 or 2027.
“We’ve not been shy about our excitement around Harry Potter,” Zaslav told Wall Street analysts on the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “I was in London a few weeks ago with Casey [Bloys, CEO of HBO] and Channing [Dungey, chairperson of Warner Bros Television] and we spent some real time with JK and her team,” he enthused. “Both sides just thrilled to be reigniting this franchise. Our conversations were great.”
Despite a lack of programming competing in the 76th Primetime Emmys window, Season 3 of Hacks upset Season 2 of The Bear in the Best Comedy category. CEO and Chairman of HBO and Max Content Casey Bloys gave an update about the series after this win.
Bloys suggested that the March date on the casting call for the series’ main trio might not mean the same thing as a start of production. He foresees the series arriving in late 2026 or early 2027.
The success of the stage show demonstrates that there’s still an appetite for Hogwarts-related content. Likewise the massive hit that is Hogwarts Legacy, which became the bestselling video game of 2023, moving 22 million units. (That’s fantastic, but for comparison Rowling’s seven bestselling Harry Potter books have moved 600M copies worldwide.)
At a Goldman Sachs conference last year, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made pointed out the need for more Hogwarts magic explicitly. Ignoring the Harry-less Fantastic Beasts films, the CEO insisted the boy wizard presents a huge opportunity, claiming that the IP has been “underused” of late.
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Zaslav called that type of big-ticket IP “one of the big differentiators of this company.” And he seems to be counting on it to make a big difference.
“When you put those franchises in, it’s the best-performing studio in the world. We need to deploy our best capital, and we need to do it with the best creative people in the world,” he said.
It will, of course, be on Max once the series is ready. The service has three price tiers: Max Ad Light, which goes for $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year and allows two concurrent streams; Max Ad Free will be priced at $15.99 a month, or $149.99 a year, and will also allow two concurrent streams; and Max Ultimate Ad Free which costs $19.99 a month, or $199.99 a year, and allows access to four concurrent streams.
In addition, WBD’s other current epic literary adaptation, House of the Dragon, is available not only on the company’s streaming service, but also to cable subscribers on HBO. The Potter series will follow suit, according to execs. So if you have HBO via your cable provider, you’re all set.