The Harry Potter franchise, ownership JK Rowling and Warner Bros. Discovery is proud to say that everything is back to normal, thank you. However, Harry Potter franchise is not exactly telling the truth. Despite a best-selling video game and the promise of a new seven-season TV series, the franchise hasn’t been in such a strange place since its inception. Some strange book burnings in the early 2000s. This time, though, it’s hard to point fingers and laugh at those who demand that you not consume Wizarding World merchandise: As Rowling’s views on transgender rights become more outspoken, it’s become clear to many fans that her work may be patronizing. it is truly a threat to human rights around the world. After all, the author is known for his funding Transmarginal initiatives and for taking the continuing importance of his work as support for his views. He also continues to be involved in all Potter-related projects.
Rowling has alienated a large portion of her fans. In particular, the story of the abused young boy who found out he was a wizard has alienated queer and queer fans who saw it as a defense of a better and more tolerant world. And yet, nostalgia Harry Potter the franchise is still going strong. Stores are still selling plenty of Boy-Who-Lived related merchandise, and alienated or not, many fans can’t shake their love for Hogwarts and all that surrounds it. This nostalgia is undoubtedly one of the main reasons why Warner Bros. Discovery decided to adapt Rowling’s original seven novels into a TV series, to be released within a decade.
But is nostalgia really enough to launch such an ambitious series? How much love is there really for new Potter projects? It is Harry Potter is the reboot really what fans want from the franchise? And in the end, does it even matter?
The ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ and ‘Fantastic Beasts’ franchise numbers tell two very different stories
One important thing to understand is how Harry Potter the series has managed to live on in the hearts and minds of its fans without ever really ending. Of course, the last book in the original saga, Harry Potter and the Deathly HallowsIt came out in 2007. As for the films, it appeared last Daniel Radcliffe as the titular boy wizard, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – IIIt was released in 2011. However, Rowling has kept the franchise alive by publishing in-universe books such as Tales of Beedle the Bardand through Pottermore website Filled with stories, character descriptions, and personality quizzes that challenge readers to sort Hogwarts houses or pick a wand. Pottermore It has certainly done more than a little to keep the fire going Harry Potter bright
But the most memorable projects to come out of the franchise are its biggest ventures: The Fantastic Beasts and where to find them film series and the last Hogwarts: Legacy video game One of these stories is a success story. The other, not so much.
the protagonist Eddie Redmayne As the magician Newt Scamander, he Fantastic Beasts The film series was intended as a prequel to the film Harry Potter series focusing on the rise of the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Colin Farrell/Johnny Depp/Mads Mikkelsen). The first film was released in 2016 and was generally well received by critics and audiences. But due to problems ranging from a poor story to the questionable behavior of people in front of and behind the cameras, the second and third installments of the franchise did not reach the same level of success. Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets hit a franchise low at the box office. The prequel franchise was originally slated to have five films, but so far, there is no fourth or fifth film on the horizon.
Hogwarts: Legacy, while Warner Bros. is considered a huge success. For Discovery’s gaming arm. The action RPG, which has fans playing as students at 19th-century Hogwarts, was released in February. The best selling game of 2023passing titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and FIFA 23. How the game reached this level of success is still anyone’s guess. Some will say better than storytelling Fantastic Beasts saga, while others will simply say what Harry Potter fans really want him to return to Hogwarts. There are still those who will claim that boycott calls from transgender fans boosted game sales, but that seems like more victim-blaming than anything else. Whatever narrative you choose, that’s the most important thing Hogwarts: Legacy It showed that there is a market for Potter-related things, as long as they don’t have anything to do with Newt Scamander.
Is ‘Harry Potter’ Reboot What Fans Want?
But, having said that, it is a Harry Potter What TV reboot fans want too? Ever since the saga first gained popularity, fans have been clamoring for some sort of Expanded Universe. More specifically, Potterheads have long been clamoring for a Marauders-based show or even just a crappy movie. This hypothetical series would focus on the quartet formed by Harry’s father James Potter (Adrian Rawlins), and his friend, Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), and Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall). The story would continue through their years at Hogwarts and Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) rising to the first power after.
Other common requests include a movie or TV show about the founding of Hogwarts or about the children of the series’ protagonists. When this last request was made a few years back Harry Potter and the Cursed Child the play reached theaters in the West End and on Broadway. Not only was the show a hit, but apparently it wasn’t good enough to adapt to the screen. So far, at least, there is no intention Harry Potter and the Cursed Child film or TV version, although some names associated with the original film franchise have already made their interest in the play quite clear.
But if you do a tour before 2023 Harry Potter speech online, you’d be hard-pressed to find any significant demand for a TV series based on the original seven books. And that’s because the books have been adapted into films relatively recently, between 2001 and 2011. Harry Potter The saga was very successful theatrically, with three of its eight films ranking among the top 100 grossers of all time. according to Box Office Mojo.
Apart from the financial returns, the actors and the overall look of the films are a big part of the present Harry Potter nostalgia When we imagine The Boy Who Lived, the young face of Daniel Radcliffe comes to mind. Snape is Professor Alan RickmanIt’s Hagrid Robbie Coltrane, and so on. Although not original to the film, recreating these roles is like recreating Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill): feels bad. These are not faceless characters like superheroes, but characters that have a very distinct appearance in the minds of audiences around the world. You could say that other children’s book-to-movie franchises of the early 2000s, for example His dark materials and Series of Unfortunate Events, have been successfully adapted into TV shows, and you wouldn’t be wrong. However, none of these franchises came close to the cultural image it was (and to some extent still is). Harry Potter. Also, both His dark materials and Series of Unfortunate Events it never topped the first movie.
Is nostalgia really Warner Bros. Looking for Discovery?
So, taking all that into account, a Harry Potter Could the TV series capitalize on the franchise’s nostalgia factor? On the one hand, there sure seems to be a market for stories set in Hogwarts, even with everything JK Rowling has done to alienate her fans. On the other hand, the nostalgia fans experience Harry Potter it’s not only for Rowling’s books, but also for the movies she’s directed Chris Columbus, Alfonso Cuaron, Mike Newelland David Yates. Trying to replace movies with another visual format doesn’t seem to be the right choice, at least not as far as fans of the past are concerned.
But perhaps we are being a little short on this matter. Perhaps Warner Bros. Discovery isn’t trying to capitalize on nostalgia, it’s trying to create a new generation of Potterheads, captivating an audience that’s still too young to fully grasp the implications of what Rowling has to say online. Falling in love with an 11-year-old audience Harry Potter it would not be so different today Ender’s game fans grew up to know that Orson Scott card he is a rabid homophobe. By the time kids are old enough to come face-to-face with Rowling’s transphobia, they’ll have already spent the money. Pottery the merchandise And considering how much the current face of the franchise is about standing up for trans people’s rights, well… It’s a painful conclusion, but from a certain perspective, changing the face of the franchise doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.
