Harry Potter TV Series in the works

[Nick1Ø66 6,754]

These were children when they were cast. How many children are truly outstanding actors? And even if they can pull something off in one film (e.g. Haley Joel Osment), how many can keep it up over eight films, spread over what, a decade? With those scripts, multiple directors, and acting in front of a green screen. What do you guys want from child actors, Shakespeare?

 

Most actors, much less child actors, would have difficulty expressing the range of trauma and emotion those roles truly call for. There's an expression...by the time you're ready to play Hamlet, you're too old to play Hamlet.

 

They did fine, and HBO will be lucky if they find three leads who do as capable a job, and grow into the roles the way those three did.

 

 

[bored 564]

Guess who else was a child when he was cast? Jacob Tremblay, yet he was a great actor in Room. You're allowed to criticize a performance for any reason. I'm not criticizing them as people, or that they should be ridiculed their whole life for it, but yes I believe they still generally are not great actors. Kirsten Dunst is another example of a child actress who was pretty consistently good IMO. Tom Felton as Draco was great in all of the films as well!

 

Also keep in mind, I'm mainly criticizing the performance in the films, not necessarily the actors themselves at that point. I think Columbus did a good job directing the child actors in Chamber of Secrets, but I don't think he did in the first film. I think a child performance mostly rests on the director. 

 

34 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

They did fine, and HBO will be lucky if they find three leads who do as capable a job, and grow into the roles the way those three did.

 

 

And I just personally disagree. However, I doubt the HBO series will fare better either in all fairness. Just look at the acting in the reboot of A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix. Similar situation, I don't think the main 2 cast in the original movie were great, but the series' actors were far worse (the adult ones too). 

[Edmilson 10,471]

34 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

What do you guys want from child actors, Shakespeare?

JWFan and the rest of the internet's answer to that:

 

"Yes. Otherwise, we'll make their lives more miserable than we did to Jake Lloyd".

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

For me, the quality of the Potter films was an epic downhill slide anyway. 

I cannot tell in the later films if the acting got worse, because the movies as a whole kept getting badder and badder.

Really, it's just the first two that I like and, to some surprising extent, 5&6 seemed to work for me too.

Everything else is just an EEEEPIC missed opportunity. 

 

Which is why I'm hoping this TV series will do better. 

Though I can't believe for a second that it will. 

That original cast is bloody tough to beat. 

And with a different art direction and no John Williams...?

Yeah, this is going to be a missed opportunity for a WHOOOLE other set of reasons.

[bored 564]

On 14/05/2025 at 4:51 PM, Pieter Boelen said:

And with a different art direction and no John Williams...?

 

 

That is by far and away my biggest hang up on the series. What the hell could they possibly do to even match John Williams' original themes, or Columbus or Cuaron's crews' expert art direction? Hogwarts Legacy didn't even try to change the overall art direction (and fair enough), so I can only assume the series probably won't change much either since it's supposedly supposed to tie into the sequel game.

 

If they got James Hannigan for the series (as woefully unlikely as that is) then it could have a chance to emulate the quality of the original films' music, but there's no way anyone could surpass it. 

[Chen G. 5,140]

Better do something different, at least, then to do a copycat. *gestures in the direction of Rings of Power*.

 

I think it would have been even more calamitous here, because if they would have been copying the art direction, what point would there have been to retread this ground to begin with?

[Brónach 1,316]

This is top five slow motion crashes.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

2 hours ago, Chen G. said:

I think it would have been even more calamitous here, because if they would have been copying the art direction, what point would there have been to retread this ground to begin with?

That's indeed been my question exactly. 

Hogwarts is about as iconic as Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones. 

Changing the look will be baffling indeed. 

But NOT changing the look will be too.

 

10 hours ago, bored said:

If they got James Hannigan for the series (as woefully unlikely as that is) then it could have a chance to emulate the quality of the original films' music, but there's no way anyone could surpass it. 

Oooh, that WOULD be epic!!

The guy did GREAT with the 5&6 games!!

(I know he did 7&8 too, but were those any good...?)

[Chen G. 5,140]

I mean, you say that and yet Hogwarts WAS changed quite radically between Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban.

 

At least we know they're doing Little Whinging different.

[Bilbo 3,999]

The Hogwarts silhouette changed in every film. The kept adding bits and moving stuff around. There’s seven different versions of the castle as it is. 

[Nick1Ø66 6,754]

11 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Hogwarts is about as iconic as Harrison Ford playing Indiana Jones. 

 

Er...no.

 

Setting aside the fact that the appearance of the school changed throughout the films, it also looks different depending on which illustrated edition of the book you have, which game you're playing, etc. 

 

People may have any number of visions of Hogwarts in their mind, but everyone pictures Harrison Ford when you say Indiana Jones.

 

 

[Chen G. 5,140]

1 minute ago, Bilbo said:

The Hogwarts silhouette changed in every film. The kept adding bits and moving stuff around. There’s seven different versions of the castle as it is. 

 

There will always be tweaks happening, yes.

 

But the big watershed was Azkaban. It would be hyperbole to say it looked nothing alike but...

[Once 903]

My dream scenario would be if Gardiner and Mylod commissioned Williams to write a new 'main titles theme' based on their vision of the story to score the main titles sequence and/or the end credits.

Then the new composer could use the theme whenever suitable in the underscore - Solo-style.

 

It's not gonna happen, obviously, for many reasons.

[Chen G. 5,140]

Frankly, if the overall audiovisual style of the show is different - and it doesn't have to be radically different: there had been various adaptations of Great Expectations that were all different but still in that Dickensian London millieu - I wouldn't mind a few things staying the same, whether it means the Williams' theme cropping-up or whatever.

 

If Brian Sibley's Lord of the Rings radio serial can reprise cast members from the 1978 Bakshi film, and if Jackson can reprise a cast member from Sibley and shots from Bakshi...then this show can take little bits and bobs from the Potter films. What you can't do is do a show that's constantly leeching off of the audiovisual style of the films, a-la Rings of the Doppleganger. That would be a death-knell for this show.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

1 hour ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

 

Er...no.

 

Setting aside the fact that the appearance of the school changed throughout the films, it also looks different depending on which illustrated edition of the book you have, which game you're playing, etc. 

 

People may have any number of visions of Hogwarts in their mind, but everyone pictures Harrison Ford when you say Indiana Jones.

Especially at first glance/impression, it looks the same. 

Small changes can be handwaved by literally "a wizard did it".

Especially with Hogwarts Legacy being still very fresh in people's minds, I'm still going with...

Er...YES!

 

29 minutes ago, Once said:

My dream scenario would be if Gardiner and Mylod commissioned Williams to write a new 'main titles theme' based on their vision of the story to score the main titles sequence and/or the end credits.

Then the new composer could use the theme whenever suitable in the underscore - Solo-style.

 

It's not gonna happen, obviously, for many reasons.

Would indeed be great.

Alternatively, I'd be okay with them maintaining Hedwig's Theme.

It's basically as iconic for Harry Potter as Harrison Ford is for Indiana Jones.

[Chen G. 5,140]

4 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Especially at first glance/impression, it looks the same. 

 

It absolutely does not.

 

The Azkaban version (going forward) looks very, VERY different from the Chamber of Secrets one. Obviously it's not a complete overhaul, but it's damn close to being one.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

18 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

It absolutely does not.

It does to me.

And I think many other regular watchers feel the same.

Still the same general aesthetic.

 

19 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

The Azkaban version (going forward) looks very, VERY different from the Chamber of Secrets one. Obviously it's not a complete overhaul, but it's damn close to being one.

Ruddy bloody Cuaron messing things up! 

I REALLY don't appreciate how he basically torpedoed what was originally a very promising series.

[Not Mr. Big 4,815]

12 hours ago, bored said:

 

That is by far and away my biggest hang up on the series. What the hell could they possibly do to even match John Williams' original themes, or Columbus or Cuaron's crews' expert art direction? Hogwarts Legacy didn't even try to change the overall art direction (and fair enough), so I can only assume the series probably won't change much either since it's supposedly supposed to tie into the sequel game.

 

If they got James Hannigan for the series (as woefully unlikely as that is) then it could have a chance to emulate the quality of the original films' music, but there's no way anyone could surpass it. 

They'll get Nicholas Brittel to write an unrelated dramatic score and every once in a while they'll sprinkle in statements of Hedwig's theme for brand recognition (on a bad sounding Celesta or maybe even glockenspiel)

[Nick1Ø66 6,754]

5 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Still the same general aesthetic.

 

5 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Ruddy bloody Cuaron messing things up! 

 

Well which is it? It looks the same, or Cuaron messed things up? 

[Chen G. 5,140]

4 minutes ago, Not Mr. Big said:

on a bad sounding Celesta

 

Quite humourous, being that as far as I'm aware Williams always used a synth Celeste on these. 

[Richard P 4,754]

Given Williams ditched almost all of his thematic base and style for PoA, I hardly think another composer taking this on is a massive problem.

 

But it's the same sort of deal with RoP and it's safe to say McCreary lived to tell the tale. You just have to be able to accept someone other than one's idol composing a score.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

5 minutes ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Well which is it? It looks the same, or Cuaron messed things up? 

Both.

I'm not upset about the Hogwarts changes. 

I AM upset about a great many other things he did.

 

1 minute ago, Richard P said:

But it's the same sort of deal with RoP and it's safe to say McCreary lived to tell the tale. You just have to be able to accept someone other than one's idol composing a score.

I really do hope we'll get another Harry Potter composer doing as well as McCreary did there.

He did a TON of great new themes.

[Chen G. 5,140]

1 minute ago, Richard P said:

Given Williams ditched almost all of his thematic base and style for PoA, I hardly think another composer taking this on is a massive problem.

 

But it's the same sort of deal with RoP and it's safe to say McCreary lived to tell the tale.

 

I'll be a pedant here, but this is apples and oranges: Azkaban's Williams - and the composers after him, including Newton Howard for Fantastic Beasts - were writing for the same "iteration" of the Harry Potter world. Bear McCreary is NOT writing for the same Lord of the Rings that Howard Shore (or Stephen Gallagher) was writing for: he just deludes himself that he is.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

9 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Bear McCreary is NOT writing for the same Lord of the Rings that Howard Shore (or Stephen Gallagher) was writing for: he just deludes himself that he is.

Strange that despite what you claim, Howard Shore actually wrote a brand new opening theme for that series.

Which indeed subsequently goes completely unused otherwise and is basically instantly forgettable.

 

I'd have liked the Ring Theme to show up at some point.

But why do the actual rings look so much lamer than in LotR?

 

It's Schrödinger's Middle Earth show. 

It both is and isn't part of the same world.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,854]

Wait the LOTR television series isn't set in the same universe as the Peter Jackson movies??

[Chen G. 5,140]

2 hours ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

Wait the LOTR television series isn't set in the same universe as the Peter Jackson movies??

 

No. It's just posturing.

 

That's what we're saying: The Potter show mustn't go down a similar path. It will be even more disasterous here than it was on the Amazon show.

 

2 hours ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Strange that despite what you claim, Howard Shore actually wrote a brand new opening theme for that series.

 

Nevermind just that: In general, the show (in season one, anyway) recruited an unprecedented amount of people who worked on those films: in the music branch alone they had not just Shore and his people (Sizemore et al) but also Plan 9 and David Long (and obviously some of the session musicians).

 

Around half the sound people were from Lord of the Rings. Almost all the art department and almost all the costume department worked on the films. Something like a third of the camera department, and almost half of the props and hair-makeup departments did as well. WetaFX and Rising Sun did much of the VFX.

 

Even the bit parts are shared: one of the grizzled villagers is the Corsair captain and Jed Brophy pops-up as an Orc. The three goons that attack Halbrand are Aragorn's stunt double, Thorin's stunt double and Dwalin's stunt double, to name just one example.

 

But it's still separate: you yourself give the example of the divergent ring designs.

[Not Mr. Big 4,815]

41 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

 

Quite humourous, being that as far as I'm aware Williams always used a synth Celeste on these. 

The synth is what makes it good.  I hate those hard attack celesta Hedwig statements from the later movies

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

19 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

But it's still separate: you yourself give the example of the divergent ring designs.

It's Schrödinger's Middle Earth show. 

It both is and isn't part of the same world.

 

It does genuinely confuse and baffle me. 

They've got the rights. Why wouldn't they REALLY set it in the same continuity??

What's going on???

[Chen G. 5,140]

1 minute ago, Pieter Boelen said:

They've got the rights. Why wouldn't they REALLY set it in the same continuity??

 

They don't have the rights to set it in the same continuity. That's always the case when two different companies are making adaptations of the same property: it's like how that awful Raimi Oz is trying to model itself on the 1939 film: always similar, never the same. That's because one is by MGM, and the other was by Disney.

 

Obviously Potter won't have that problem but it's also not covering a different timeframe like Raimi or Amazon were doing with their respective property: there's no need to retread Harry Potter if it's going to look the same, so the need for a new look here is absolute.

[bored 564]

15 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Obviously Potter won't have that problem but it's also not covering a different timeframe like Raimi or Amazon were doing with their respective property: there's no need to retread Harry Potter if it's going to look the same, so the need for a new look here is absolute.

 

I understand the problem with imitating so closely, the issue for me is: how on Earth could it possibly look better than the old look, and especially sound? That's part of the reason why part of me would rather them imitate Williams, the old art direction, etc. It just doesn't seem likely, no matter the budget, that it will be better if they go their own way in those departments. 

[Chen G. 5,140]

This show was always going to be in a tricky spot. But at least it IS going with different visuals. Look at Privet Drive:

 

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

25 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

They don't have the rights to set it in the same continuity. That's always the case when two different companies are making adaptations of the same property: it's like how that awful Raimi Oz is trying to model itself on the 1939 film: always similar, never the same. That's because one is by MGM, and the other was by Disney.

Surprising.

I thought that was the whole point of the Amazon purchase.

 

26 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

Obviously Potter won't have that problem but it's also not covering a different timeframe like Raimi or Amazon were doing with their respective property: there's no need to retread Harry Potter if it's going to look the same, so the need for a new look here is absolute.

I'm inclined to agree. 

But it's swimming upstream by doing so. 

The art design of the original movies was ICONIC. 

It'll be tough to outdo that.

 

10 minutes ago, bored said:

 

I understand the problem with imitating so closely, the issue for me is: how on Earth could it possibly look better than the old look, and especially sound? That's part of the reason why part of me would rather them imitate Williams, the old art direction, etc. It just doesn't seem likely, no matter the budget, that it will be better if they go their own way in those departments. 

Yeah, it's quite the impossible position they've managed to manoeuvre themselves into. 

I don't envy them their task.

 

6 minutes ago, Chen G. said:

This show was always going to be in a tricky spot. But at least it IS going with different visuals. Look at Privet Drive:

 

Huh, why would they actively BUILD what is supposed to be a perfectly mundane British neighbourhood??

Way to waste the budget!!

Of all the things in the entire series, this is one thing you COULD easily just shoot on location. 

 

If they're clever, they'll build a Hogwarts to LAST this time. 

Imagine the amount of money you can make by giving tours of THAT once filming is complete! 

You can even have entire holiday events, like a Hogwarts shaped hotel.

If they're bothering to build bloody Privet Drive too, this would not be out of scope either.

[bored 564]

3 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

If they're bothering to build bloody Privet Drive too, this would not be out of scope either.

To be fair, we're talking a potentially giant castle versus a part of a town that will probably be enhanced with effects later. Building an entire Hogwarts might be a bit of an insane feat.

[Richard P 4,754]

39 minutes ago, Pieter Boelen said:

Huh, why would they actively BUILD what is supposed to be a perfectly mundane British neighbourhood??

Way to waste the budget!!

Of all the things in the entire series, this is one thing you COULD easily just shoot on location. 

 

They tried that with the first one (or two), but David Heyman said that the residents wanted so much money for the location rights (and whatever else it takes) that building a new street was actually cheaper.

 

So given that they'll use this multiple times over the course of the show and can film on it whenever they want, it likely saves them a ton in the long run.

 

A lot of completely idiotic (to us) decisions are made by studios, but when it comes down to the ground troops and the set builders, designers and general crew, I'd expect them to be pretty good at working cost-effectively.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

1 hour ago, bored said:

To be fair, we're talking a potentially giant castle versus a part of a town that will probably be enhanced with effects later. Building an entire Hogwarts might be a bit of an insane feat.

Might be. 

Insanely COOL feat though. 

Can you imagine??

 

44 minutes ago, Richard P said:

They tried that with the first one (or two), but David Heyman said that the residents wanted so much money for the location rights (and whatever else it takes) that building a new street was actually cheaper.

Seriously???

Consider me surprised! 

I'd have thought the honour of your home showing up on TV would be enough already.

Though perhaps those residents wouldn't appreciate their home being used as THE example of dodgy Muggles though.

I wonder how Doctor Who does it.

[Once 903]

Exactly. It’s very likely cheaper in the long run to build the street on their own backlot rather than deal with 10 years of permits and changing residents with different demands.

They did the same for the movies, I think they already got complaints when they started shooting on location with real owls, haha.

[Richard P 4,754]

The more I think about it, permits and individual agreements are one thing, but getting all the cast and crew there, closing the road, doing whatever set dressing they have to do - the disruption to the residents must be fairly immense at times. Imagine spending a hefty amount to build an actual street, but then not having any issues whatsoever with residents or schedules - they can literally do absolutely anything they want, when they want. I went on the Universal and WB studio tours years ago, and the latter particularly had entire streets with real buildings you could drive around. It's a wonder studios film anything on location.

 

The makers of the Ocean movies did the same for the third one - they built an entire casino floor because filming the first one taught them that location shooting for the period needed was an all-round headache for them and the casino. (I checked with ChatGPT for this one, and the story of the Bellagio wanting an enormous daily fee of that day's takings is a myth - the producer knew the hotel's owner and they just paid a standard location fee).

 

I was amazed to discover from the DVD commentary that I'm Alan Partridge (UK 90s sitcom) was filmed on a set, and not a real hotel. There's a consistent theme here that it seems to be cheaper to build a set (hence a larger up-front cost) than deal with the general faff of trying to film in a real location.

 

Quite a lengthy post, but I find this stuff fascinating.

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

2 hours ago, Richard P said:

Quite a lengthy post, but I find this stuff fascinating.

And so it is.

Indeed it is. 

 

Myself I cannot help but think, if you have to build something serious, wouldn't it be cool to build it to last? 

I'm thinking especially of SHIPS used in movies, of course. 

Surprisingly to me, this one still exists: 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neptune_(galleon)

Even though all PotC stuff has long since been dismantled and even actual replica ships are falling in disrepair.

[Chen G. 5,140]

Hoiho! Hoiho hoho!

 

https://press.wbd.com/us/media-release/hbo-0/harry-potter/hbo-original-harry-potter-television-series-sets-cast-roles-harry-potter-hermione

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,854]

Never heard of them

[Pieter Boelen 1,019]

18 minutes ago, Lady Dimitrescu said:

Never heard of them

It says they're newcomers.

Would've been weird if you had heard of them.

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,854]

Who?

[Alex 2,937]

Probably as perfect casting as they could have done tbh. Hope they have good people around them. 

[Edmilson 10,471]

Well, they look the part.

 

I just hope they keep these kids away from social media and their official channels are managed by the parents and/or team. Because there will be a barrage of hate, moaning, bitching, "you don't look like the character" types and even some creepy weirdos.

[mstrox 7,211]

Which ones which

[bored 564]

Can't wait for Malfoy to call this Hermione a "mudblood"... 

[Director of Poltergeist 8,091]

Looks like an improvement

[Nick1Ø66 6,754]

I think these kids look great.

 

Can they act? Who knows. But I have no issues with the casting.

 

 

[Lady Dimitrescu 9,854]

8 hours ago, mstrox said:

Which ones which

 

 

[Matt C 538]

5 hours ago, Mr. Lovejoy said:

Looks like an improvement

The new kids give off the same vibe that Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint did back in 2000. Depending on how you felt about the movies, good or bad.

 

It’s going to be weird seeing the new cast in the same sets, accompanied by Hedwig’s Theme.

 

2 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

I think these kids look great.

 

Can they act? Who knows. But I have no issues with the casting.

 

 

The new Hermione played Matilda in the West End version of the stage musical, so she has some prior experience. Not sure about the new Harry and Ron.