Harry Potter TV Series in the works

[bored 565]

8 hours ago, Pieter Boelen said:

5&6 I thought were somewhat decent again. 

 

 

Agree with 5, strongly disagree with 6 personally. The lack of Voldemort backstory that was explored in great detail in the book, the lackluster humor, the Attack of the Clones style romance with Harry and Ginny which was far more charming in the book, the pointless added action scene at the burrow, the worst score of the series, and on top of all of that, one of the ugliest films I have ever seen to date. 

 

All of the David Yates ones in general have this aura of cheapness and laziness (minus the occasional action scene I guess). 1-4 feel so handcrafted and thorough in the filmmaking by comparison, even if 3 and 4 have the problem of being over the top and miss a lot of essential plot details from the book. Plus Voldemort's final design in 4 was so lackluster compared to his book description. They couldn't even get the red eyes right (which Columbus did for Philosopher's Stone). Hell, they couldn't even get young Lily's eye color in the final film to match Harry's, a fact that the whole series has reminded us that they're supposed to be the same.

 

I think one of the best examples that encapsulates the lazy filmmaking is both what I just mentioned, and how they simplified Dobby's design. In Chamber of Secrets, he has so much detail, and despite being an earlier film, looks so realistic and authentic with a puppet-like texture with various wrinkles and bumps, slight hairs, an expressive face, and a seamless blending with the actors.

 

Then in Deathly Hallows Part 1 (left), we get this sad-looking pale homunculus with smooth skin and less detail, and almost identical rags he had in Chamber so Yates and co. could reuse elements of the design. Even though he's free now so he can wear better clothes (like he did in the books from what I remember). Even the voice actor seemed to forget Dobby's more unique, raspy voice in exchange for sounding like a generic Mickey Mouse clone.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

20 minutes ago, bored said:

strongly disagree with 6 personally.

I remember liking it upon leaving the cinema. 

But I cannot disagree with any of your complaints leveled against it. 

 

On the whole, the Harry Potter series is HORRIFICALLY uneven. 

Moments of greatness mixed with absolutely baffling decisions in the movie making. 

Often many times within the same movie, creating quite the tonal whiplash.

 

HUGELY missed opportunity.

But I cannot imagine the new series doing much better. 

It'll be a pain indeed to be missing the old almost uniformly excellent cast. 

Much of the art design is iconic in the extreme.

And the John Williams touch will be sorely missed indeed. 

 

No, I cannot imagine this becoming much of an upgrade...

I WISH! 

But the best versions of those movies still exist mainly just in my imagination.

[bollemanneke 4,013]

Hmm, I don't think 4 missed essential plot details.

[Once 903]

37 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Hmm, I don't think 4 missed essential plot details.

I think the fourth book possibly has the best classic Agatha Christie-style mystery - it even starts with a murder! Polyjuice instead of disguises, but it's essentially an old-school whodunnit with satisfying explanations for every red herring.

I don't see how a film could realistically do the book justice anyway, but I feel that without Ludo Bagman, Percy, Bertha Jorkins and especially Winky and the real Barty Crouch Sr./Jr.-dynamic the adaptation loses a lot of the real appeal of the books for me.

I still love the score, the actors and a lot of the visual choices made, though!

[bollemanneke 4,013]

Oh I agree! The book is my favourite in the series!

 

But yes, what I really meant was, given the constraints that the film had to cope with, I don't see how they could have done more. This is what my major problem with the series is after that point. If they had stuck to the standards set by 1 and 4, we would have had a better series. Newell would NEVER not have included Riddle's backstory in 6.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

11 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

Newell would NEVER not have included Riddle's backstory in 6.

No, he: 

1. Made apparating look like colour-coded whisps of smoke for no apparent reason, which was then turned into the polar opposite of cool wizard dueling in the next entry.

2. Had Hagrid as a buffoon stab Flitwick(?) in the hand, for misplaced "comedy".

3. Spent a gazillion dollars on an epic Goblet reveal, but: 

4. Turned the final task into lame "killer bushes" compared to the book's bunch of really inventive and memorable encounters, from a sphinx to the upside-down spell.

 

And once upon a time, the Voldemort track by Patrick Doyle proved so boring that I literally just fell asleep during it (I was sick at the time).

No, Doyle's work does NOT inspire compared to Williams.

 

Oh, by the way, the Prisoner of Azkaban movie is a logical and stylistic mess as well. 

But I complained about that here before, so I'll save myself and all of you the trouble of going in depth on that as well.

[bollemanneke 4,013]

I love HP4, with its few shortcomings. And if it hadn't been for Doyle, I might never have listened to film music.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

54 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

I love HP4, with its few shortcomings. And if it hadn't been for Doyle, I might never have listened to film music.

I like Doyle sometimes too.

He can be pretty good.

[Chen G. 5,172]

18 hours ago, bored said:

Then in Deathly Hallows Part 1 (left), we get this sad-looking pale homunculus with smooth skin and less detail, and almost identical rags he had in Chamber so Yates and co. could reuse elements of the design. Even though he's free now so he can wear better clothes (like he did in the books from what I remember). Even the voice actor seemed to forget Dobby's more unique, raspy voice in exchange for sounding like a generic Mickey Mouse clone.

 

I don't think this is a fair comparison. I think the old Dobby is more painterly and appeals to you on this level: the "new" Dobby has much more realistic skin-tone. I think it's a technology pioneered for Gollum: Subsurface scattering to emulate realistic flesh tones.

[GerateWohl 5,959]

The movie series skipped a lot of the good textual humor from the books and replaced it with some visual effects comic reliefs. I hope this will be better in the TV adaptation. 

[Davis 3,949]

Harry Potter is like GoT. It’s become too much and boring. This series or a new movie series could be relevant in maybe 10-15 years, for a whole new generation. Getting a tv series with raceswapped characters while the movies are still rather fresh in fans’ memory is stupid. Even more than black Snape.

[Chen G. 5,172]

Yeah, I'm also not certain of how succesfull of an idea it was to readapt the books when, all things considered, the films are not all that old yet. But we'll see.

 

I'm also not sure where the intend to go from an audiovisual perspective. If they're not gonna have distinctively different visuals then what's even the point - from an audience perspective - of redoing it?

[Gurkensalat 364]

I hope for 2 things:

1. the movies had to be condensed, partly drastically. The Series can use everything from the books without time constraints. 

2. Consistent appearance. No sudden changes of the layout of Hogwarts, of directorial style etc. Just one story told in a consistent voice. 

[GerateWohl 5,959]

The Harry Potter movies are like the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

Both based on a great successful template, but apart from the three Williams scores completely irrelevant and forgettable.

[Richard P 4,772]

1 hour ago, Gurkensalat said:

I hope for 2 things:

1. the movies had to be condensed, partly drastically. The Series can use everything from the books without time constraints. 

2. Consistent appearance. No sudden changes of the layout of Hogwarts, of directorial style etc. Just one story told in a consistent voice. 

 

In my world it would've been a series to start with. I think it was Newell who talked about cutting out bulky subplots and 'stuff', but those bits are what make a series interesting and diverse.

 

I'm less convinced about a completely consistent design throughout every season, given how long this show would run for (if it went the whole way) but but I supporse that depends on showrunner/director arrangements.

[DarthDementous 1,425]

4 hours ago, Chen G. said:

 

I'm also not sure where the intend to go from an audiovisual perspective. If they're not gonna have distinctively different visuals then what's even the point - from an audience perspective - of redoing it?

we might end up with another Rings of Power situation in that regard, preferrably not though

 

5 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I don't think this is a fair comparison. I think the old Dobby is more painterly and appeals to you on this level: the "new" Dobby has much more realistic skin-tone. I think it's a technology pioneered for Gollum: Subsurface scattering to emulate realistic flesh tones.

you can actually see subsurface scattering at work on Dobby's ears in those COTS screenshots, the way the light filters through the skin in a semi-transparent way with a warm glow, like when you light a torch through your hand - so I don't think that's what is happening here

notably Dobby plays a much smaller role in terms of screen-time in DH1 compared to COTS, and also shares it with Kreacher who is a fully CG character that has more screen-time - and also looks quite good. I suspect that might be part of why he looks off

[ddddeeee 486]

I know fans like to squabble about some of the changes, but as far as Average Joe goes, the HP movies were all good/great and wonderfully cast. People grew up with the movies and now their kids have grown up with them, too. This isn't like His Dark Materials or Percy Jackson or whatever - as far as this particular series goes, fans and audiences are more than content. I

 

I don't see how WB can look at the initial gross of Fantastic Beasts (the first made over 800M without any returning cast or characters) and the mammoth success of Hogwarts Legacy and not see that there's clearly a huge appetite for new stories in this world people love. Fantastic Beasts started to tank because the movies were bad and, perhaps coincidentally, the grosses lowered the closer they got to the HP franchise. 

 

No matter how good the show is/isn't, I just don't see this succeeding in the long run. Ratings will me massive to begin with for sure, but in the long term, I think this'll be a mess. It's still too early to tell these stories again.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

I deleted Hogwarts Legacy

[Chen G. 5,172]

1 hour ago, DarthDementous said:

we might end up with another Rings of Power situation in that regard, preferrably not though

 

Yeah, that's what worries me.

 

That approach is silly enough in a pretendquel but in a remake/readaptation it's even worse.

[Edmilson 10,517]

2 hours ago, ddddeeee said:

I know fans like to squabble about some of the changes, but as far as Average Joe goes, the HP movies were all good/great and wonderfully cast. People grew up with the movies and now their kids have grown up with them, too. This isn't like His Dark Materials or Percy Jackson or whatever - as far as this particular series goes, fans and audiences are more than content. I

 

I don't see how WB can look at the initial gross of Fantastic Beasts (the first made over 800M without any returning cast or characters) and the mammoth success of Hogwarts Legacy and not see that there's clearly a huge appetite for new stories in this world people love. Fantastic Beasts started to tank because the movies were bad and, perhaps coincidentally, the grosses lowered the closer they got to the HP franchise. 

 

No matter how good the show is/isn't, I just don't see this succeeding in the long run. Ratings will me massive to begin with for sure, but in the long term, I think this'll be a mess. It's still too early to tell these stories again.

[Jurassic Shark 14,994]

2 hours ago, ddddeeee said:

I know fans like to squabble about some of the changes, but as far as Average Joe goes, the HP movies were all good/great and wonderfully cast.

 

Well, children aren't very critical viewers. 

[Bespin Copilot 9,626]

I bet $100 that this series will be canceled long before the adaptation of the seventh and final book.

[Once 903]

I gotta say, even if few names have been announced I really like all the talent officially involved.

Francesca Gardiner, Mark Mylod, Holly Waddington behind the scenes and John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, Nick Frost, Paapa Essiedu and Paul Whitehouse on screen. This would be on my radar regardless of the Harry Potter brand.

[Chen G. 5,172]

I mean, cast-wise it would be hard-pressed to top the films, which were a who's-who of British acting royalty. Even nothing parts were people like Julie Christie, David O'Hara, John Cleese and Sir John Hurt.

[Nick1Ø66 6,775]

17 hours ago, Davis said:

Getting a tv series with raceswapped characters while the movies are still rather fresh in fans’ memory is stupid. Even more than black Snape.

 

Race-swapped characters were inevitable, there's really no use in complaining about it at this point. Like it or not, it's a feature of modern media. It is what it is.

 

The issue here is who they're "race-swapping". Casting a black actor as  Snape...a dark, manipulative, racist character, who is "othered", picked on, named-called, bullied, and ultimately sacrifices himself for love of a (presumably) white girl he loves, is...a choice. You've got a whole world of characters to choose from, and you go with Snape?

 

Race-swapping any character was alway going to cause controversy among some quarters, of course. From book purists to bigots. But with a black Snape it's almost as if they're intentionally trying to insert a racial subtext into the story.

 

[Once 903]

4 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

I mean, cast-wise it would be hard-pressed to top the films, which were a who's-who of British acting royalty. Even nothing parts were people like Julie Christie, David O'Hara, John Cleese and Sir John Hurt.

Oh, I agree! They would have to go for the few big stars that "got away" to even be equal to the movies (Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Christian Bale, etc.). That's not gonna happen.

 

But I also think that the cast is the only consistently impressive part of the film series.

[bored 565]

12 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

But with a black Snape it's almost as if they're intentionally trying to insert a racial subtext into the story.

 

Again, remember when James took his pants off and hung him upside down in a tree? Can only imagine that will have to be cut from the show. 

 

19 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

Hmm, I don't think 4 missed essential plot details.

 

No Dobby which sets the standard for the rest of the series and leaves less impact for his death, no explanation of prize winnings that Harry gets, which he then gives to Fred and George which explains how a poor wizard family has a joke shop (besides some sports betting), some of the mystery elements taken away as previously mentioned, Barty Crouch and his son's characters being completely changed and therefore most of their storyline cut, and a completely cut Quidditch World Cup after huge buildup. 

 

Though even with all of that I still prefer it over all of the David Yates ones. 

[bollemanneke 4,013]

But none of that is essential. How many people will care how Fred and George got that shop?

[Nick1Ø66 6,775]

19 hours ago, bored said:

All of the David Yates ones in general have this aura of cheapness and lazines

 

I never say "unpopular opinion", because it's one of the most abused terms online, and I get annoyed when I see it, but my unpopular opinion is that I prefer the Yates films. OotP is my favourite of the eight.

[Chen G. 5,172]

Mine too.

[bored 565]

30 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

But none of that is essential. How many people will care how Fred and George got that shop?

 

It's a whole in the story/plot that fundamentally breaks it. Essential for quality writing. The more there are, the more they build up and make the series worse until it breaks by the final films because so much is lost at that point. "And Remus, your son..." Lupin had a son? What? I would say Dobby is pretty essential to give us more reason to care when he dies.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

13 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

I never say "unpopular opinion", because it's one of the most abused terms online, and I get annoyed when I see it, but my unpopular opinion is that I prefer the Yates films. OotP is my favourite of the eight.

 

They're more dark and disturbing.

[bored 565]

I find 1-4 infinitely more dark and disturbing because every threat feels far more tangible and dangerous thanks to the quality filmmaking and the fact that they're kids in danger. 5-8 they already look and feel more like adults at that point (even if they technically weren't in real life). Yes people die, but that's not really dark or disturbing for the most part. More just dramatic and sad.

 

Not to mention the concepts of petrifying, having your soul removed, Voldemort's spirit possessing people to the point he manifests like a conjoined twin, and being murdered alone in a graveyard is far more disturbing to me than battle scenes and killing people to make a soul object. There is Bathilda Bagshot turning into a snake though, that was pretty disturbing.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

5 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I'm also not sure where the intend to go from an audiovisual perspective. If they're not gonna have distinctively different visuals then what's even the point - from an audience perspective - of redoing it?

My thinking completely. 

A separate adaptation deserves a unique look and feel. 

But who would accept a different design for Hogwarts now? 

Especially with Hogwarts Legacy still being so fresh? 

 

33 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

Race-swapped characters were inevitable, there's really no use in complaining about it at this point. Like it or not, it's a feature of modern media. It is what it is.

 

The issue here is who they're "race-swapping". Making Snape, a dark, manipulative character through much of the story, who is "othered", picked on, named-called, bullied, and ultimately sacrifices himself for love of a (presumably) white girl he loves is...a choice. You've got a whole world of characters to choose from, and you go with Snape?

 

Race-swapping any character was alway going to cause controversy among some quarters, of course. From book purists to bigots. But with a black Snape it's almost as if they're intentionally trying to insert a racial subtext into the story.

 

Exactly my concern too.

Snape was always a dodgy character and often hated, but never because of racist reasons. 

As someone on Facebook pointed out, the bullying of Snape will look quite different now.

 

33 minutes ago, Once said:

But I also think that the cast is the only consistently impressive part of the film series.

Yeah, pretty much.

Except Gambon, who annoys me so much I still have difficulty appreciating him even outside Harry Potter.

I guess he's okay in Longitude and Doctor Who...

[bored 565]

5 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Except Gambon, who annoys me so much I still have difficulty appreciating him even outside Harry Potter.

 

 

He's better in the last few movies where he has a bit more of a Dumbledore-like demeanor, but he's still a bit bland in those. I do like him in Elder Scrolls Online though.

[Davis 3,949]

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Race-swapped characters were inevitable

Uh, what?

 

 

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

The issue here is why they're "race-swapping".

Fixed.

[bollemanneke 4,013]

1 hour ago, Chen G. said:

Mine too.

Well, I can certainly appreciate OOTP for what it is these days. Yates was the perfect director for that one. But after that, they should have changed.

[Chen G. 5,172]

Well, I also like The Half-Blood Prince very much indeed!

[Meredith McKay 7,869]

3 hours ago, Davis said:

Uh, what?

 

Quote

"Like it or not, it's a feature of modern media. It is what it is."

 

[TolkienSS 488]

I'm so tired of supposed entertainment being littered with garbage like this show.

The tired routine of "re-imagining" things for "new audiences" is by now a spare time hobby for eccentric executives and IP creators who wag each other's tail, detached from every kind of real audience.

This kind of goofy shit is only alive and well within its own universe of scummy media coverage and obscene award shows.

 

It will bomb, everyone knows it will bomb, people who can't admit it will bomb will be obnoxious, people who can't stand people who won't admit it will bomb will be obnoxious, and it will die the usual long painful death after several attempts to hype up the already dead corpse.

 

 

[DarthDementous 1,425]

2 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

I'm so tired of supposed entertainment being littered with garbage like this show.

The tired routine of "re-imagining" things for "new audiences" is by now a spare time hobby for eccentric executives and IP creators who wag each other's tail, detached from every kind of real audience.

This kind of goofy shit is only alive and well within its own universe of scummy media coverage and obscene award shows.

 

It will bomb, everyone knows it will bomb, people who can't admit it will bomb will be obnoxious, people who can't stand people who won't admit it will bomb will be obnoxious, and it will die the usual long painful death after several attempts to hype up the already dead corpse.

 

 

...or we could chill tf out until it's evenly tangibly out there as a product able to be consumed, and then be critical then instead of assuming the worst case scenario that already fits the preconceived narratives in our heads when at this point all we know about it is 1/12th of the casting (if that)?

[Director of Poltergeist 8,112]

It's gonna be great 

[Nick1Ø66 6,775]

3 hours ago, DarthDementous said:

...or we could chill tf out until it's evenly tangibly out there as a product able to be consumed, and then be critical then instead of assuming the worst case scenario that already fits the preconceived narratives in our heads when at this point all we know about it is 1/12th of the casting (if that)?

 

Well, not really, no.

 

The reason they trickle out information, like casting announcements, is to get people talking about it. Well, we're talking about it. And when we're talking about a well known "product" (to use your term) like Harry Potter, with familiar characters, that we're meant to "consume" (ibid), discussing the casting, or anything else, through a critical lens is not only appropriate (especially in a place like this), but it's what the studio wants.

 

When a project like this is announced, and we know no specifics, it's blank slate. As more information comes out...casting, directors, set design, composer, etc...people are going to start to form opinions, good or bad, little by little, based on that information. It's silly and unrealistic to expect anything else. Especially, again, in a place like this.

[mrbellamy 7,302]

11 hours ago, Chen G. said:

Well, I also like The Half-Blood Prince very much indeed!

 

I get why it's divisive as an adaptation, of course, and Delbonnel's work. But there is something compelling about it, the tone is very melancholy for how much of it tries to be a comedy. I kinda like that lol, it's an odd one. It's the cilantro of the Harry Potter movies.

 

The thing I like least about it is Hogwarts feels so sad and empty. Despite the romantic hijinx it's cheerier in 5 when Umbridge is around! It doesn't totally hit me the way they want when Harry comments how beautiful the place is at the end, and again I actually feel that spirit more in the ending of 5. It's not as shocking as it could be when it's taken over by Death Eaters in 8. It doesn't feel that different, really. 

 

Not that interested in the show, feeling very been there done that, and to be polite about it, everything around Harry Potter is annoying right now. There are only a handful of things I would be particularly curious to see done differently or at all and they'd have to survive at least four years to start digging into those. I also honestly think it's ridiculous to put a bunch of kids in this position for another whole decade especially considering knives are already way more out for this than they ever were for the movies. Godspeed to the little ones, hope they make it out alive (and John Lithgow). It'll be fun to see if they do stuff like Peeves and the potions challenge. Probably will glimpse it via YouTube clips unless it's a freaking masterpiece. 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

16 hours ago, bored said:

I find 1-4 infinitely more dark and disturbing because every threat feels far more tangible and dangerous thanks to the quality filmmaking and the fact that they're kids in danger. 5-8 they already look and feel more like adults at that point (even if they technically weren't in real life). Yes people die, but that's not really dark or disturbing for the most part. More just dramatic and sad.

 

Not to mention the concepts of petrifying, having your soul removed, Voldemort's spirit possessing people to the point he manifests like a conjoined twin, and being murdered alone in a graveyard is far more disturbing to me than battle scenes and killing people to make a soul object. There is Bathilda Bagshot turning into a snake though, that was pretty disturbing.

 

The later films are darker, more evil.

[Richard P 4,772]

15 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

I'm so tired of supposed entertainment being littered with garbage like this show.

 

You might find more solace and enjoyment by going back to a dark room and putting Shore's music on a loop. Might make you less angry about basically everything 

[JazzyNips 79]

16 hours ago, TolkienSS said:

The tired routine of "re-imagining" things for "new audiences" is by now a spare time hobby for eccentric executives and IP creators who wag each other's tail,

They actually get paid quite handsomely for it. Complaining on the internet is more of a "spare time hobby", unless you've been picked up by YouTube's chud algorithm. 

[Director of Poltergeist 8,112]

7 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

The later films are darker, more evil.

 

More boring than Algebra. It began as a series of kids movies and while they were initially terribly paced dragged out movies with bad child performances, they were slightly more watchable than the needlessly dire dark desaturated borefests, with bad teenager performances.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,901]

They missed an opportunity to make them in black and white.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

1 hour ago, Mr. Lovejoy said:

 

More boring than Algebra. It began as a series of kids movies and while they were initially terribly paced dragged out movies with bad child performances, they were slightly more watchable than the needlessly dire dark desaturated borefests, with bad teenager performances.

I did prefer them more joyful, true...