It’s been 13 years since the last movie based on the original Harry Potter books was released, and while the franchise has continued to grow, through both the Fantastic Beasts films as well as well as the upcoming new Wizarding World at the Epic Universe theme park, that original series is still what captures the imagination. This is why we’ll be getting a new Harry Potter TV series in a couple of years, but one relative of an original cast member is not thrilled about it.
Jared Harris is an actor you would recognize from his roles in series like Mad Men. He’s also the son of the late Richard Harris, who played Dumbledore in the first two Harry Potter movies before his untimely passing led to Michael Gambon taking on the role. He was recently asked by The Independent if he would be interested in taking on his father’s role as Hogwarts headmaster for the upcoming Max series. Not only is he not interested in the part, he’s also not interested in the series even existing. He said…
No, thank you. Also, I mean, why do it? I don’t understand. The films were fantastic – leave them alone.
Having said that, even Jared Harris acknowledges that a series will be able to delve deeper into the material and do some storytelling the movies had to skip over. An eight or ten-episode season dedicated to the first book will give the writers a lot more time. We can expect characters that didn’t even appear in the Harry Potter movies may show up in the series.
Harris’ comments certainly echo those of a lot of fans. As much as there are a lot of people who love Harry Potter, they love those original movies so much that they don’t see a need to remake them as a series. While the Harry Potter movies have frequently jumped between streaming services, so it can be hard to know which one has them at any given moment, it’s not particularly difficult to rewatch the films as long as you figure out where to go.
The “why do it” is, unfortunately, a fairly simple answer. There’s a good chance that Harry Potter fans the world over will subscribe to Max when the new series debuts. It’s all about the money.
Of course, with the Fantastic Beasts movies having run their course, despite there being plans at one point for as many as five of them, it would be foolish to believe WB would leave such a lucrative franchise alone. Rather than find another corner of the Wizarding World to tell new stories, the decision was made to go back to the old reliability of Harry Potter himself.
Casting Jared Harris as Dumbledore certainly wouldn’t be a terrible choice. By the time the new series starts filming he will likely only be a few years younger than his father was when he played the role, and it would be a nice nod to the original series.
It will certainly be interesting to see who they get in the roles of Hogwarts teachers. They were the actors that were the most well-known names when the first movie came out. They likely will be again, as there’s a good chance the roles of Harry, Ron, and Hermione will be played by unknowns.