Yer a TV series, Harry. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone—no pandering to Americans with that Sorcerer business this time!—is coming to a streaming service near you this Christmas. We just got our first look at the upcoming television adaptation of the Harry Potter book series by controversial author J.K. Rowling, and there’s so much to say…
Rumors have been floating around about an HP series since January 2021 and were confirmed by HBO Max in 2023. “Your Hogwarts letter is here,” the streaming service tweeted on April 12. “Max has ordered the first ever #HarryPotter scripted television series, a faithful adaptation of the iconic books.”
So what, exactly, does a “faithful adaptation” look like? Here’s everything we know so far.
The teaser is more moody than magical…
In March 2026, HBO Max dropped the first teaser for the adaptation, giving us a peek at Hogwarts, its faculty, and most of our main youngster cohort. The teaser leans into an exciting, if ominous, tone, emphasizing realism, maybe even…grittiness?
We get to see a few scenes that were in the books but not the movies, like Harry being bullied at school and getting a haircut. We also see Harry and Hagrid riding the Tube, which isn’t in the first movie (but was actually filmed, if you want to watch the deleted scene). From the costumes, we can see that this is period-accurate to 1991, and other details bring the story to life…
But there isn’t much magic! Well, it’s a long time until Christmas; they’re probably saving that for future trailers.
Fans aren’t a thousand percent on board.
As one popular YouTube comment on the teaser reads, “This feels like one of those parallel universes where everything is the same, but slightly off.” It’s not that it’s wrong, exactly, but it’s accurate to the books while still being so similar to the movies that there’s a sort of uncanniness about it.
For my money, the missing ingredient is the score. Those John Williams themes slapped.
How many seasons will there be?
Unclear. Bloomberg reported that HBO Max was in talks with Rowling to produce a series wherein each of the seven Harry Potter books would have its own season. However, now that the adaptation has been confirmed, it looks like the one-book-per-season report was not quite accurate. “For 10 consecutive years, people will see Harry Potter on [Max],” said David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Easier said than done. When the trailer dropped, head of HBO Casey Bloys walked back that “consecutive” promise a bit, saying, “Our goal is to not have a huge gap [between seasons], especially because the kids are growing, [but] it’s not going to be an annual; the show is too big and too massive.”
What is J.K. Rowling’s involvement?
In recent years Rowling has gone from a beloved author to a divisive figure following a series of controversial statements about the transgender community. After Rowling did not return to Hogwarts for the 20th-anniversary special of the sinema series, many fans hoped she would be kept away from the television series. This is not the case.
“J.K. is an executive producer, and her insights will be helpful,” said HBO CEO Casey Bloys, per The Hollywood Reporter.
In her own statement, Rowling said, “Max’s commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me, and I’m looking forward to being part of this new adaptation, which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long-form television series.”
There was pretty immediate backlash.
X content
X content
X content
That said, she hasn’t really been beating the drum for the show and only made one comment when the trailer dropped, in reply to someone tagging her in a tweet about it.
X content
Who is in the cast?
Thank you for the intel, Variety.
- Harry Potter: Dominic McLaughlin
- Hermione Granger: Arabella Stanton
- Ron Weasley: Alastair Stout
- Aunt Petunia: Bel Powley
- Uncle Vernon: Daniel Rigby
- Lucius Malfoy: Johnny Flynn
- Draco Malfoy: Lox Pratt
- Parvati Patil: Alessia Leoni
- Seamus Finnegan: Leo Earley
- Lavender Brown: Sienna Moosah
- Molly Weasley: Katherine Parkinson
- Cornelius Fudge, Minister for Magic: Bertie Carvel
- Albus Dumbledore: John Lithgow
- Minerva McGonagall: Janet McTeer
- Rubeus Hagrid: Nick Frost
- Severus Snape: Paapa Essiedu
- Quirinus Quirrell: Luke Thallon
- Argus Filch: Paul Whitehouse
Wait, isn’t that kind of a lot of hot people?
Truly no offense to the actors in the movie cast, but when you look at the adults in the HBO cast, like Aunt Petunia, Mr. Malfoy, and Snape, don’t they all seem kind of…really hot? Like, why does Cornelius Fudge need to be kind of low-key a dish? If we’re going for book accuracy, shouldn’t everyone be goofy-looking British people who grew up in the ’70s and ’80s? Just asking questions.
Why is Snape controversial?
Snape is described repeatedly in the books as a creepy-looking pale guy, not a hot Black guy, so just in that sense, it isn’t accurate. On top of which, making Snape Black adds a layer of weird feelings for some people to the backstory of Harry’s (white) mom ditching Snape as her best friend when she fell in love with Harry’s (white) dad, who was also Snape’s bully.
Plus, as many YouTube users pointed out in the comments on the trailer, it also doesn’t look great that the plot of the first season will be Harry accusing Hogwarts’ only dark-skinned teacher of theft with no evidence. Accio bias training.
This post will be updated.
