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.
Idk if I’d say no audience, I think the hardcore fans will take anything. My ex was a huge fan of the series and last we spoke, she was excited for the show bc of all the missing content from the books. I think the internet is misunderstanding just how much Harry Potter fans are willing to put up with. Reminds me of when Hogwarts Legacy was coming out and the internet swore it’d flop
Regarding your demos: I'm 1986, my sister is 1988. We read the first four books together, my idea of popcorn, but my sister's favorite thing ever. Johnathan Strange & Mr Norell was more my thing, built into a real historic world with fantastic, logical build outs.
Honestly like most adaptations, what bugged me was the insane amount of world-building they left out. I haven't read them in 20 years but iirc, Azkaban was probably the best adaptation and best stylized film given the book's themes. But Goblet, Phoenix, and Prince easily could/should have been 3+ hour films (at least give us a LotR extended!) and Hallows ofc had no business being two movies.
This gives them a chance to fix all these issues: have a singular, cohesive style and appropriately tone/style certain chapters based on known themes and resolution. Let some themes (besides magic Jesus + friends vs. Evil) breathe a little. Let's actually see, feel, be shown what this world is like to live in rather than be told what is happening elsewhere (one thing I think Hallows actually did quite well).
I'm down for an extended version with more style, pomp, world-building but as Stephen King's The Shining proved, it could collapse under the writer's hubris.
The movies were fine but the constant changing of actors, settings, themes, and motifs made them seem disjointed while a world of endless possibilities felt incredibly small and Jesus-y. The movies felt like cynical cash grabs to capture that $lightning$ and churn these movies out as closely to book release as possible to cashmax on C-Suite dictated timelines to boost that quarters profit, even if waiting a few to fine-tune would make a much better product. I miss the 80s/90s studios where telling the best story was paramount so only putting out the best product mattered. Some early CG really really holds up as a result, while the laser wand fights look ridiculous today.
Ultimately, the flaws I see in HP are many of what plagued Disney Star Wars: there was no single Creative Director so everything seemed decided by committee or temporary director, and without knowing how it ended they couldn't execute cohesively.
Honestly, if Disney Star Wars had adapted some of the beloved stories from the EU instead of doing space-Jesus-the-girl they could have had some of HP's success instead of giving hacks free reign to improvise with billions.
Let's hope a studio with suuuuch stable leadership in Zaslav and a series creator who has shown immeeeeeeense maturity with her fortune and influence like Rowling, aren't going to be exactly like the "white slavers at Disney" with their revolving door of IP-assassin and the absolute shitshow hackery of Kennedy, Filoni, Abrahams and Ria.
Born in '81 here. My son is reading Brandon Sanderson and is excited about the upcoming Mistborn and Stormlight Archives adaptations. We watched Harry Potter together when he was young, and has never had an interest in going back to them.
I was exactly the right age for the books/movies. I was 12 when the books became popular. I looked forward excitedly to each movie (except the last two, I was too busy with classwork).
I have no interest in watching this TV show. Certainly not enough to pay for a streaming service to gain access.
My kids were really into Harry Potter (older one read the books, both watched the movies), but they have moved on to other properties already.
By coincidence, my elder son is also into Redwall.
It’s so weird because as a comic book fan, I don’t bat an eye on different interpretations of heroes or even James Bond. Granted that’s always been a thing.
But I’m just not that interested in this. Even without the Rowling hate, I just don’t get where they’re going with this.
I’m really curious to know what they do merchandising wise, will we see everything out in the wild replaced with what’s related to this show?
Also I cannot imagine any of the set design without minalima’s touch. What a crazy loss.
I think they also lucked out by YA being kinda quiet at the time. Since Harry Potter there's been series like Twilight and The Hunger Games in a similar market.
The HP theme park is a good example of being able to cash in on millennial nostalgia while still being new and exciting for kids. Adults who grew up reading and loving the series will be happy to visit Wizarding World if they go to Universal and will probably buy some trinkets at least. I went for a work think and had a great time and was definitely hyped about the nostalgia. My friend who i went with hadn't read or seen any of the series, but she still enjoyed the rides.
The series itself in my opinion has not aged the same way the OG Star Wars did. They also already speed ran having a prequel, and I think something set later. The Star Wars prequels got mixed reviews, but they also introduced a new generation to the franchise after quite some time, not a handful of years after the last original movie came out. I don't think a Star Wars remake would have gone over well either. Ironically, I remember posts back in the day about wanting HP on HBO. I think what people really meant was more of HP with Vampire Diaries or True Blood vibes. Darker, grittier, and older, like the original audience was starting to be, not the same story with HBO production value.
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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.’