If you’re a Harry Potter fan like myself, you’ve probably heard a whisper or two about a Harry Potter reboot that’s been rumored for a few years now. Well, the rumors are true, and here is everything the public knows about this reboot so far.
To start off strong, the first thing we know about this reboot is that it is in partnership with HBO and will be released as an HBO original, though it was originally planned to be a Max original. This means that the show will run on HBO and then be available for streaming on Max once it’s finished running on cable. And we know that it is currently set to release in 2026, according to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. It is also from Zaslav that we learned that the show, which is currently being marketed as a more faithful adaptation of the original books, will run for seven consecutive seasons. This information tells us multiple things that we can infer about the show, one of the most obvious being that each season will focus on one of the books. This also tells us that unlike the movies, the show will not be splitting up the last book into two parts.
Another major thing that is known about the reboot is that the manhunt for our Golden Trio — Harry, Ron, and Hermione — is officially underway. On September 9, 2024, the official Harry Potter Instagram account published a UK open casting call, which confirmed that the casting call was for “children to play the roles of Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley” in the reboot.
The casting calls for children who live in the UK and will be the ages between 9-11 as of April 2025. The call also speaks a lot about being open to diverse and inclusive casting, which many have taken to believe that a Black Hermione could be very probable. Of course, it will be quite a long time before the cast is revealed to the public, but it is still very major to know that the next Harry Potter could already be auditioning for the role as you read this.
There have been other rumors circulating around the reboot. For example, many fans have speculated that it wouldn’t be too surprising if some of the original movie cast made an appearance in the show. One cast member in particular that fans are expecting to possibly see is Tom Felton, who originally played Draco Malfoy in the films. This is due to the fact that since the conclusion of the films, Felton has hung tightly to the magical world. In 2022, Felton published a memoir titled Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard in which he told stories from his time on the Harry Potter set. While this has also garnered him much criticism for not being able to let the movies go, others see it as an opportunity for him to have a chance at playing another Harry Potter character — maybe his old on-screen father, Lucius Malfoy.
Felton wouldn’t be the only person returning to the Wizarding World, however, because there are talks that David Heyman, the producer for all eight original films and the Fantastic Beast movies, could possibly board the project as an executive producer alongside J.K. Rowling. And of course, the author of the books will be a key part of the show, especially since it is promised to be a faithful adaptation of the books. Rowling’s fall from grace has definitely changed how the series is seen by many people, and I am curious to see how this affects the show and its watchers.
I am sure that as time goes on we will learn more about the adaptation, and I am very excited to see it evolve. Even though I am very skeptical about how it will match up to the original movies, I will be watching because I am unable to stay away from anything Harry Potter.
