The past few years have been anything but easy for Harry Potter fans. Really new formats, which are about the famous magician student with the scar on his forehead, could not be found in the cinema or on television. And the spin-off series around the “Fantastic Beasts”, which practically narrates the prequel to the “Harry Potter” films, is unlikely to continue – the prequels simply were not successful enough. But is Warner really giving up on the mammoth franchise?
Of course not. In recent years, rumors have circulated that, for example, the play “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” could be made into a film and thus become an eighth “Harry Potter” film. Indeed, new Warner boss David Zaslav also revealed plans to continue working with “Harry Potter” inventor JK Rowling on new stories from the Wizarding World. However, no concrete information has been released so far. But now a Warner official has spoken out and reignited the rumours…
Series, quiz shows, TV events: how and where does “Harry Potter” continue?
In an interview with Warner Bros. TV executive Channing Dungey asked Variety if there was anything after the TV events Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses (a quiz show on HBO) and the Harry Potter Reunion (a reunion of the movie cast, also on HBO) have more to come projects with the Sorcerer’s Apprentice for television and Dungey’s answer sounds promising: “There’s a lot of interest in it and we’re having some discussions about it”.
However, Dungey didn’t get much more specific and also explained that she couldn’t say much more about it. So whether upcoming projects are really a whole (and has been speculated for a while) “Harry Potter” series we do not know. But nobody wants to drop the franchise altogether – as long as there is a chance for financial profit, which is much easier for the studio to predict in the case of TV projects than in the case of feature films.
Fact is: The Wizarding World is huge in theory and there are plenty of opportunities to tell more stories about wizards and the past and future of Hogwarts. It remains to be seen what Warner plans for the franchise.