Home / tv

Harry Potter Fans Are Divided Over New Live-Action HBO Max Series

Harry-Potter

Daniel Radcliffe and the gang bowed out from the Wizarding World ten years ago when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 was released, sending the eight-film series out in a blaze of critical and commercial glory, where it comfortably reigned as the highest-grossing franchise in the history of cinema until the Marvel Cinematic Universe started to gather momentum.

Even though the story of The Boy Who Lived wrapped up a decade ago, though, the popularity of the brand shows no signs of diminishing. The jury is still very much out on the Fantastic Beasts prequels, but J.K. Rowling’s literary creation looks guaranteed to enjoy the sort of pop culture longevity that spans generations. That’s why it comes as a surprise that reception to the news that HBO Max were inviting pitches for shows set in the Harry Potter universe has been decidedly mixed.

Some fans are thrilled at the prospect of revisiting the world in episodic form, while others think Warner Bros. might be running one of their biggest cash cows into the ground, and then there are those very much against the idea of Rowling continuing to profit after a huge section of the fanbase rallied against her, as you can see below.

The sprawling mythology is worth tens of billions of dollars across all forms of media, so it wasn’t as if the studio were ever going to let Harry Potter sit on a shelf gathering dust, even after the final three Fantastic Beasts blockbusters are eventually released. Of course, we still know absolutely nothing about what form the project will ultimately take, but it looks as though winning over the fans is going to be a lot more difficult than initially expected.