Is the wizarding world of Harry Potter finally coming to the small screen?
There’s certainly a lot of interest, according to Warner Bros. TV group boss Channing Dungey.
“There is a tremendous amount of ambition for that, and we are engaged in a number of different conversations,” Dungey told Variety.
Dungey said nothing is “imminent on the horizon, but there is a lot of interest and a lot of passion for it.”
Warner Bros. Discovery has already dipped into Harry Potter IP to deliver Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts and Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses.
“What’s great is that you see how the audience is so engaged and so ready,” Dungey continued. “Our unscripted team did a fantastic Return to Hogwarts special for HBO last year that resonated so tremendously, then we did a quiz show, The Tournament of Houses, that Helen Mirren was the host for. The audience is ready. They want to go, so we’re just to figure out what the right next step is.”
Sarah Aubrey, HBO Max’s head of original content, told the news outlet earlier in the month that there’s no series in active development right now, but HBO Max is very much in the business of creating new content for Harry Potter fans and thinking of what to do next, as these fans always want more storytelling.
And back in September, Deadline reported Warner Bros. Discovery International president Gerhard Zeiler talked about the company focusing on the “development of franchises,” one of which was Harry Potter.
Rumors of a Harry Potter series on HBO Max have been in the tea leaves for a while, with The Hollywood Reporter saying it was in early development as far back as January 2021. The Wall Street Journal also reported this year that Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was planning on meeting with franchise creator J.K. Rowling to develop new content for HBO Max.