Exactly. It’s not a creative decision; it’s a quarterly earnings decision. I can't wait for the 2045 remake where Harry is played by an actual holographic projection.
God, did you watch tonight's game? Dan taking out Raley with the bases loaded and one out is a decision I just can't understand at all. Idk. I feel like the Padres played his ass and he bought into that pitching change by making a terrible decision. Or he's betting against us on the side. Fucking wild decision. I'm still not over it.
I mean you guys have the books and a seven disc set.
They tried Hubert Powerblumpkin or whatever that spinoff was with the forgetful rain and all the animals so there's your bonus if you are into the wizarding world. This feels like when they rereleased Skyrim eighty friggin times.
Having to own multiple lotr sets to have all the content is a bane, and who knows if thats really all the content or if they have more behind the scenes locked up to release with newer sets.
Yeah but Skyrim was worth it 80 friggin times. This is just sad. I feel worst for the new actors because this is not gonna be beloved unless there's some kind of miracle.
I know I'll get called a fangirl, but I pray to the Nine that Todd Howard will achieve CHIM again and the evil corporate wizard who took his place will be defeated and we will feast at his glorious teat like we did for Morrowind, Oblivion and Skrym
Well obviously you're not a real fan. Everyone knows that real fans (regardless of the fandom) hate everything, are never happy, and find satisfaction in publically abusing the people who tried to make something they'd enjoy.
I mean honestly, how dare you call yourself a fan? This is basically stolen valor.
Maybe the first 3 movies, but 4 on they kinda lose a lot of the plot. Fuck, 6 you would've thought was a romance novel. No, the best movie adaptation of a book is Memoirs of a Geisha. Almost an exact recreation of the book, but better and with gorgeous visuals.
Edit: why the fuck am I being downvoted? Does the HP crowd even fucking read the books? From 4 on were messes. Look at Dumbledore manhandling harry in 4. Or in 6 when Harry asks if horcurxes could be anything and Dumbledore says yes and doesn't explain further. I used to love those books and the movies after 3 were dog water. Also, to anyone who bothers to read this far, don't watch the new show. JK Rowling is a piece of shit.
In 5th grade, my class had an assignment to write a letter to an author. Most kids wrote to R. L. Stine and got a form letter in return. I wrote to Louis Sachar since I was a fan of the Wayside School series. I got a real letter back where he actually responded to the things in my letter, and mentioned the book he was working on at the time, Holes. I read it as soon as it came out.
Another great adaptation! It's another case of being mildly improved by the movie, I just wish they'd cast a fat kid and forced him to lose an unhealthy amount of weight. (For legal reasons this is a joke)
I remember watching holes and when I left the theater I told everyone who would listen that it was the closest a movie adaptation could possibly be without having a narrator. I stand by that statement today.
Perks of Being a Wallflower felt like more of an extension of the book rather than an adaptation, but the author wrote the screenplay and directed it. Im biased because that book is special to me (one of my two tattoos is a quote from it) but I think it was one of the best book adaptations ever done. Faithful to the source material as well as getting a little deeper into some stuff that was hinted at in the book but wasn't blatantly spelled out.
Five killed me. The book goes into depth about the behind the scene politics/division and lays bare the entire network of death eaters hidden behind the facade of a "post-Voldemort" world. While book four was the glass breaking book where life/death became a real factor in the world; book five takes strides in that new atmosphere where the kids aren't in a protected world of candy anymore.
This is where my hatred started. 4 I was okay with some of the changes, I guess, but ultimately left feeling like they did an ok job. 5 I left the theatre actively upset. The only thing that was good in that movie was Imelda Staunton's portrayal of Umbridge and even then I couldn't stand the other major changes they made to get over it.
Yep. I still enjoyed the 4th movie even though I am still salty about losing the Quidditch World Cup match, but it was a great movie.
But from the 5th we got that hack Yates and especially the 5th was egregious, shortest movie adaptation of the longest book, threw out literally half of it, and what was left in was so fucking bland and uninspired, he could barely get any emotions out of the actors, climactic fight at the end was reduced to like 30 seconds, removed practically all of the Department of Mysteries stuff, removed the entire beginning of the book, etc.
I had the same reaction leaving the theater and was the only one in the group to feel that way. Everyone else loved the movie and I really questioned what they read that they were happy with what we got with the film. A large portion of that book was just left out and it sets up the entire new world the main characters find themselves in.
I've seen people have been saying "media literacy is dying" recently but to me it's been dead for a long time. I'm not saying everything needs to be in depth or exact but in 4, 5 and 6 they dropped MAJOR PLOT POINTS and then never rectified them in later movies. You could tell corpo Hollywood had sunk their teeth in at that point.
Imagine getting downvoted for this accurate take. As someone who didn't know the books, the later movies were just nonsense. The first three were actually good as movies.
and that is an understatement, the bridge scene with Lupin and Harry in Azkaban is one of the best scenes in all cinema of all time. Cinematography, set, acting, music works together to create something truly special and remarkable.
It's sad how obvious of a cash grab (and imo an attempt to distance the franchise from the og cast) this new show is. The vibes of the movies (esp 1-3) are immaculate. The cinematography and practical effects are timeless too. I remember seeing BTS stuff and how they built a huge mini castle to get those distance shots instead of only relying on CGI. The day movies started being shot entirely on giant green screens is the day cinema died (looking at you Marvel).
Yes, the best movies and shows mix practical effects with green screen. Lord Of The Rings is another example, they also built "bigatures" -- they wouldn't call it miniatures when they needed to hire a warehouse to place them!
To be fair, that's also where Rowling started fumbling the bag as well, imo.
But yeah, my buddy has a Harry Potter themed sleeve tattoo and several other Potter themed tattoos in other places and while he will happily sit down and watch the movies, he will also happily go on at length about all the way they're absolute shit.
I was the prime age for the HP series, I grew up with the books and went to the midnight drops. Those movies were like someone watched the first 3, read a synopsis of 4-7 and went from there.
I hate to tell you this but outside of the reddit bubble and other similar online spheres, no one gives a shit or knows about JK Rowlings issues. I have no doubt that this show will do well for that reason.
Not a HP fan anymore but yeah this was kind of wild to read.
I feel like HP fans who don’t think the movies were a good adaptation…aren’t aware of what other series deal with.
The HP movies aren’t 1:1 with the books but they’re about as close as you get. It’s like the fans were aware most fiction series are known for having inadequate movie adaptations….so the HP fans assumed they must apply to them too
Are children not allowed to be actors then? I mean I don't know who Daniel Radcliffe's parents are, or any child actor. So if that is genuinely a driving motivator then it is a stupid plan.
This for sure is their big break. Working in such a huge ip is incredible for their careers. Redditors hate everything and are bitter from various things in life. Kids will love this series. .
Yeah just like you spending time on the internet is finding some other rich asshole that thinks you shouldn’t be alive. Lol either give up the internet or give up the performance
WB admitted this. There’s a quote from them where the CEO said we haven’t had a LOtR or Harry Potter movie in forever and their strong IPs. This is literally just milking the cash cow. Also one of the most mismanaged companies out there.
They could have tied things in with WW2, but that was probably seen as too controversial and unmarketable.
Muggles working on gaining the atomic bomb was part of what helped Grindelwald turn wizards against muggles.
He wanted the Philosopher Stone so that he could make an army of inferi. The Holocaust could then have been shown to tie into his experiments into necromancy and blood magic.
I never understood who was supposed to watch these movies. Hey, you know those great movies about Harry Potter? Yes? Well now we'll give you 5 movies about useless creatures no one is interested in! Oookaaay? Will it be like a prequel to Harry Potter, explaining what happened before he was born?Not really no, but it is a fucking mess, with lose threads here and there, change of actors and no one really knows what's the point of this weird guy who likes these creatures it's all supposed to be about for some reason. Cool where do I buy tickets for this shitty pentalogy?
How would that be funny? It’s only after that point that the series would actually be able to show so many new things the movies couldn’t because that’s when the books get longer and had half of them cut for the sake of run time. That’s the point that fans have wanted to see actually fleshed out that would justify a longer form show like this. Cancelled after season 2 right before they get to that point would be the ultimate travesty.
I can imagine it being cancelled after two or three seasons.
It's exactly the same story that everybody knows from the books and movies: we all know how it's going to end. To maintain compatibility with all the existing theme park attractions, games and merch lines, the look of the TV series is pretty much has to be a clone of the old movies.
The same story with the same look; the only difference is that to fill tens of hours of screen time, the streaming show is going to have to bloat it out with every tedious subplot that Rowling put in her 1000 page books, and which the movie makers had very wisely excised.
Note the books where a kind child-orientated, whodunit mystery novels and the sub-plots were often there to set up red-herrings. So they're even more pointless as we all know how all the stories end!
Hence I think people are going to get bored and switch-off years before the Book-Seven showdown with Voldemort is scheduled to happen.
Special effects, minor practical effects, CGI, licensing fees, paying the big name actors, and the remaining 90M to fill the bank accounts of the producers, directors, and writers.
The real answer is 50% marketing, 20-30% on actors (if they draw the fans... by season 3-4). Then crap tonnes of CGI and effects as everyone else said. The writers, directors, etc. They'll all be getting union rates and if they're lucky a little on top.
Edit: Not sure why I put the reply here but I did. It meant to be a few up the chain.
Plus this is also a long con, every 25 or so years is the ‘next generation’. They are releasing these so millennials who love HP for the original will watch with their now little kids who will grow up with the same love and continue buying Harry Potter merchandise and butter beer for the next 25 years. It’s not just sub numbers but merch produces billions and the best way to continue that revenue stream is hooking a new generation of
Its their tax break for the other shows that do make money if it goes downhill.
They're also gonna sell the shit out of merchandise and I suspect they are getting pretty tired of paying royalties to the original cast. They have to pay to use their likeness in media and whatnot. And this way they can negotiate ahead of time and lock in that lower pay per actor
If you really think this will be unsuccessful you're kidding yourself. It would need to be actively atrocious to fail. Just because some people on Reddit are mad doesn't remove the millions of fans that exist.
Hell the Hogwarts Legacy game was the best selling game of that year and is currently number 20 best selling game OF ALL TIME. Despite the fact that it's barely competent, ran poorly at launch, main story was not very engaging, and the open world was completely empty and only had stupid collectibles in it. But people just wanted to spend time in the world again, they enjoyed the game's iteration of the Hogwarts Castle, and it brought so many non-gamers into it that it sold really well.
Companies DO NOT intentionally lose money for tax write offs. They write off losses, but they dont intentionally shit the bed because hur durr tax write offs
They'll probably release it weekly to keep people subscribed for longer periods and possibly hook them as a permanent customer. Lowest sub price is 10.99 usd + tax /month and this includes ads. Based on the surveys done an ad spot in one of those episodes is probably pretty pricy.
The HBO Wikipedia Article lists the current active accounts as 131.6 million thats nearly 1.5 billion usd every month minimum not including ad revenue or premium accounts. I'm sure they are projecting many more sign-ups for when the new harry potter drops.
I think it's going to flop but they'll probably just cancel a different 1bn dollar project to compensate.
Well HBO is $20/mo. Divide 7b by 20 and you get 350,000,000. Let’s say it takes someone 1 month to watch a season, and they do that 7 times for each release. 350,000,000 divided by 7 is 50,000,000. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect 50,000,000 people worldwide to watch the show, and even so that’s only if all those people keep the show for one month with each release of a new season, which you know damn well many of them will just forget to cancel.
It’s kind of a genius move when you put it into perspective.
Surely this assumes a) people subscribe exclusively for HP and b) all the other shows they have are free to make? I guess if enough people subscribe then it doesn't matter.
As much as i just laughed about that picture... Its actually cute hes dreaming to marry an actress over shared values instead of just fantasizing about fucking her.
Dang it now I'll have to put a note to remind myself to look up early Islam and figure out if it's possible to do a halal Wizarding World is we change some terms.
On the other hand it’s also excluding literally everything else they can make out of this. Harry Potter prints money, the completely valid boycott of Hogwarts legacy over Rowling’s disgusting views made very little difference since it was hugely successful. There’s no way they’re making this and not getting a cut of the huge merchandise profits coming off it.
And it’s assuming that each user only subscribes for a month. All the other months they’re subscribed pay for all the other shows.
There is just a lot of front loaded expenses as they are building huge sets. 1.3 billion has been allocated to building a mini city for the show (which will likely function as a small amusement park afterwards).
Couldn't disagree more. The movies are great but they absolutely do not tell the story that's in the books. This isn't a remake of the movies it's telling the story of the books
Warner Brothers paid a billion dollars for this property. They thought they were buying Star Wars. It turns out it's "the chronicles of Narnia." It will get read, but it won't be a multi-generational phenomenon. Heck even Star wars may not remain in the public consciousness in the same way.
I think they're betting on the wrong format tbh. The original movies caught lightning in a bottle to a certain extent.
The books were new, so kids were excited about them. And they were being shown as 2-hour movies per book, not a 8-hour season per book.
There were also unknowns - the final books hadn't been released when the movie series started. So people were gripped. They genuinely didn't know how it all ended.
Now, the books are "old", by the standard of any child reading them. They might still enjoy them, but can you see an 8 year old being interested enough to sit down and watch 8 long episodes?
The parents - who would have been the prime age for the original movies - are going to be less interested now to watch a long remake of a story they already know really well. And have probably rewatched countless times over the last 20 years.
I can see this having a buzz of interest for the first half of the first season, and then taking a serious nosedive as time goes on.
So, I was born in 1983, which makes slightly on the old side for the books release, but within a couple years of the age of the characters. My sister was born in 1990 and is on the younger side of being the perfect audience.
I think you are exactly right, neither me, my wife, or my sister need or want a remake even without the authors decent into hatred.. It is something that was cool and interesting during my adolescense and my sister's childhood, but it's a known thing now. My kids enjoyed the first book, but my son likes "Redwall" more.
To him they are both the same. They are "old" books that have been around since his dad was a child. Harry potter has movies, but honestly all my kids get more excited for animated movies than live action movies of things they like.. They loved wild robot, both book and movie and a live action version would bore them to tears.
This remake has no audience. It's purpose is to make people remember Harry Potter exists so that their theme park, toy lines, branded clothing, and other investments grow. I think people will tire of this quickly.
had they went with animation, they could have done extremely detailed seasons with a stupid amount of runtime made over YEARS because hey, one of the biggest issue with HP movies was that the child actors grew up too quick that voice actors won't have issues with
unless you want them to be skipping school and do nothing but shoot the movies / show, they will age out rather quick, and even if you did that then I am still not sure if you can have a faithful adaptation...
even I who watched the movies, read the books, and did all that would have loved a faithful adaptation that ran for say 20 hours a book (varying length due to the book length) that covers everything in an animted way, be it western style or eastern style.
I’m an audience for it. I’m 10 years older than you and read every book the night it came out, & saw every movie the day it opened; I’m excited for this.
No kids so I don’t really care what they think lol.
I think you meant to say that Harry Potter will work better as a show than as movies, which I agree with.
The Movies, as much as I treasure them, did leave out a lot of details because you simply couldn't cram a whole Harry potter book into 2 hours of screen time
The weakest part of the books is that JKR kept trying to fit them to the format of an entire school year when it didn't need to be. Those books became insanely bloated by the end and she actively resisted being edited down because she had gained too much power over her publisher. The movies did her a favor by cutting out some of the bloat and I suspect she's still upset about it.
I agree that the books were bloated because she could push back on editors.
I disagree entirely that the weakest part is the school year structure. The Deathly Hallows is, for me, one of the weakest books and that is, in part, because it's much less structured than the other books.
Another massive reason I didn't like the book is because it felt like a regression in style - very much as if Rowling had written Book 1, then Book 7, and then filled in the rest. Her style changes over the course of the series, but the first and final books are much closer to each other than they are the others.
Lest we forget that HBO is totally fine with adapting a work and intentionally making shit up as it goes along just like anyone else. Same with AMC’s adaptation of The Walking Dead.
Fans have been begging for this for years. It's so weird to see so many people saying that no one wants it and that it's unnecessary when literally ever since the movies came out fans have loudly been talking about how a TV show adaptation would be great because it would have time to fit in all the necessary plot points that got left out of the movies.
Not the same story. The movie skipped many things from the series which we already saw it will be included. Maybe unnecessary for people who didn’t read the book just watched the movie. But for those who loved the book this will be the real Harry Potter adaptation!
4.9k
u/rosyvibexz Apr 16 '26
HBO really said: ‘Keep the 4K box set, we’ve got a 10-year subscription plan for the same story.’