SOURCE: PHOTO COURTESY OF AIDAN MONAGHAN/HBO
(LEFT TO RIGHT) ARABELLA STANTON, DOMINIC MCLAUGHLIN, AND ALASTAIR STOUT
Slowly but surely, the creative team and cast behind the new Harry Potter series is rounding out as it prepares to go into production at Warner Bros Leavesden studios this summer.
Last month, HBO cast screen newcomers Dominic McLaughlin in the role of Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley. They secured the roles from casting directors Lucy Bevan and Emily Brockman ahead of 32,000 applicants, and join a cast that includes John Lithgow as Albus Dumbledore, Nick Frost as Hagrid, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch and Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell.
This week, a further nine names were added to the cast including Lox Pratt and Johnny Flynn as Draco and Lucius Malfoy respectively, and Bel Powley and Daniel Rigby as Petunia and Vernon Dursley.
The series is likely to first air on Warner Bros Discovery’s (WBD) soon-to-be rebranded HBO Max in early 2027, and is expected to run for a decade, with each season based on one of Rowling’s seven books. HBO has pledged it will be a “faithful adaptation of the beloved Harry Potter book series”, and it is likely to include subplots and characters that did not make the cut in the eight original movies.
The budget has not been formally revealed but a source close to the series told Screen International that production costs (and cost per episode) are on a par with Game Of Thrones, which hit $15m per episode for its final season for HBO. The episode run per series has not yet been revealed.
Charged with bringing it to the screen is UK showrunner and executive producer Francesca Gardiner, whose credits include HBO’s Succession and His Dark Materials. Gardiner is joined by experienced UK director and executive producer Mark Mylod, a trusted HBO creative who has delivered acclaimed episodes of Succession, Game Of Thrones, The Last Of Us and Entourage.
Among the writers so far confirmed to work with Gardiner for the series are Laura Neal, whose credits include Killing Eve, Andy Greenwald, the creator of USA Network series Briarpatch, and Josephine Gardiner, Francesca’s sister. Costume designer Holly Waddington, who won an Oscar for her work on Poor Things, is also on board.
Rounding out the known team so far are JK Rowling herself, who executive produces alongside trusted colleagues Neil Blair and Ruth Kenley-Letts of her Brontë Film and TV. David Heyman of Heyday Films, who has delivered hits such as Barbie and Paddington since producing the original Potter films, also executive produces.
Turnaround hopes
On their shoulders rest the hopes and expectations of not just millions of Potter fans but also of WBD, which has endured a torrid few years since its merger was completed in 2022.
SOURCE: WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY
DAVID ZASLAV
Earlier this week, WBD announced plans to separate into two separate companies, splitting its studios and streaming business from its legacy television networks. The studios and streaming business will be run by WBD CEO David Zaslav.
WBD, like its studio rivals, has been under pressure from Wall Street amid industry-wide challenges, which include advertising weakness and cord-cutting, as investors look for a return on the costly transition from legacy linear TV networks to the streaming world. Its share price is down 60% since the merger.
The split into two companies will allow greater focus by Zaslav on its growing streaming service Max. The platform added 5.3 million subscribers in the first quarter of 2025, taking its total to 122.3 million. The figures were helped by ongoing expansion internationally, where Max is now available in 77 markets, after launches in Australia and Turkey this year, and with crucial arrivals in the UK, Germany and Italy early next year.
However, the growth of Max is not happening quickly enough to counter declines at WBD’s TV networks, such as Discovery, TLC and Food Network, which account for much of its profit. Overall, WBD revenues fell 10% to $9bn in the January-March quarter. EBITDA did grow 4% to $2.1bn, primarily due to growth in its studios and streaming business.
Hanging over WBD is a high level of debt – $38bn in total. Zaslav has been slowly paying this down, but it remains a cause for concern. Ratings agency S&P Global Ratings recently downgraded the company to junk status, largely because of continued revenue decline in its linear television business. Following the company split, the linear TV division will assume most of WBD’s debt load.
Changing the name back to HBO Max this summer will help to distance it from some of the Discovery reality programming that has filled out the offer on Max, and will allow it to play on HBO’s heritage of producing hits such as The Sopranos, Sex And The City, Game Of Thrones and Succession.
Recent weeks have seen Zaslav put an emphasis on the quality over quantity approach. In this, he has been buoyed by the success of HBO’s The White Lotus and The Last Of Us. “We’re not going to flood the zone,” Zaslav said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call. “We want to be telling the best stories.”
Which brings things back neatly to Harry Potter. Rowling’s creation is one of the crown jewels of all WBD’s intellectual property, according to Ampere Analysis principal analyst Rahul Patel – comparable to the DC Universe and Game Of Thrones. But Patel says the scarcity of Potter spinoffs makes its series reboot particularly special, noting also its multi-generational and international popularity.
When the Harry Potter movies were licensed to Netflix in 2023, all shot into the streamer’s top 10 most-watched chart. Unlike Star Wars and Marvel, there is little sense of franchise fatigue, with just three Fantastic Beasts prequel films released. “It will be an enormous show,” predicts Tom Harrington, head of television at Enders Analysis. “It will be great for subscriber growth, retention, engagement and interest in the older films.”
Harrington also believes it will be a powerful bargaining chip in territories where HBO Max is going to launch, such as the UK, Germany and Italy – especially when it comes to negotiations around carriage deals and bundling. In these territories, HBO Max needs subscribers straight off the bat to offset lost licensing revenues for its programming. The best way to do that is to bundle with pay-TV packages, like its arrangement announced last year with Sky in the UK, or other streaming services, such as the package with Disney+/Hulu in the US.
Sure thing
“A show like Harry Potter, which almost can’t miss, is a nice thing to have when negotiating with platforms and other services for share of revenue,” says Harrington.
Against this background, it is hardly surprising Zaslav is hoping the series can spark a magical turnaround in his company’s fortunes. The Wall Street Journal reported that in 2022, Zaslav made it a priority to repair the studio’s relationship with Rowling, which had been damaged after the author took a public stance on gender issues. This had led to a backlash against her by some fans and to her being shunned by the stars of the Potter films. When WBD did not rush to her defence, she reportedly felt betrayed by the company. Notably, WBD has been more supportive of Rowling recently, issuing a statement last year defending her right to free speech.
Rowling is famously hands-on in terms of adaptations of her work, and her approval is vital for keeping Potter’s millions of fans on board. So the wording of the press release announcing the series as a “partnership” between Warner Bros Television and JK Rowling was significant. And so too was Rowling’s quote: “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me, and I’m looking forward to being part of this new adaptation, which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long-form television series.”
Rowling will not be the only one looking forward to the series when it lands in early 2027. So too will Potter fans worldwide – and WBD executives and shareholders.
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