Current thinking:

Eh. I guess.

As someone who's been fairly involved in Harry Potter fanfiction for a number of years now, seeing an adaption of the books is probably the least interesting possibility. However, I accept that this was always going to be the obvious choice. It significantly de-risks the project from the point of view of HBO, and will likely do well among ordinary Harry Potter fans (the majority of whom do not regularly read fanfic). If it is well received, I can see them spinning off into a Marauders show, or maybe a 'Snape' show. Maybe a Founders show. Grindelwald's era is probably still radioactive, but who knows, maybe in ten years they'll think differently.

Fundamentally, I think they need to draw the legions of Harry Potter fans back into TV and movies, and the way they do that is by offering them something familiar. Because let's be honest, what most of the Harry Potter fans of the world want is just more of the same.

Really and truly, for me, the greatest point of interest I have in this, is in its ability to rekindle the fanwork space a bit. Maybe, amid the torrents of re-hashes, and thirsty hot-secondary-character-centric shipfics we'll get a few actually interesting ideas.

 

You know, as this is HBO we are talking about, there’s a greater than 1% chance that it has lots of naked women and sex scenes randomly thrown in for no reason.

 

I'm worried that this is going to be a Max TV show and not an HBO one. The quality of Max shows is dubious.

I'm also worried that JKR is so involved. The fantastic beasts films should have killed her credibility as a script writer.

My headcanon is that the only reason she is doing this is because she is pissed that most of the original cast hate her. Watch 31 year old Evanna Lynch still play Luna because she defended her

 

Series opens with Halloween night. Kids strolling through streets and shit. Pan to James straight up railing Lily before Voldemort jumpscares them to death in a big fight scene. After Lily dies, Voldemort aims wand - wash in green light & cut to opening, where Hogwarts gets the GOT opening treatment.

Rest of the episode is Harry's childhood. Bit of bullying, bit of magic, then the flight to Stokesworth or whatever British dunghole they pick - end the episode on heavy CG Hagrid busting the door down.

 

HBO aren't first timers or Netflix, canceling good shows left and right. The movies really kind of struck gold with the child actors they cast. HBO has also shown they can cast good child actors (GOT comes to mind). If they somehow manage to do it here, those kids have a job for a decade.

Whoever they cast will have a shit time and need a lot of support. I can't imagine the depths of bullshit they'll have to deal with spewing out of social media and kids today are so tuned into that stuff that simply not engaging will be very difficult for them. In the context of the show, keeping the lead child actors sane will be a key issue.

Not to mention what others have said, constant comparisons to the OG cast. WB and HBO are taking on a big task here.

 

The biggest improvement they can make is Dumbledore. If we can get more of a Richard Harris version instead of the roid rage Michael Gambon version that would be nice.

 

The more I think on it, there is absolutely no way they can get a "season" out of the Philosophers Stone.
If it is to be 1 season = 1 book, they will need to expand from JKRs notes, but like Peter Jackson did with The Hobbit films, adding in detail not in the pages. One way would be to focus on Snape and Dumbledore, but another would be more focus on Harrys classmates, The Original 40.

Spoiler

In other words, Daphne is confirmed

 

There probably isn't enough for 10 episodes but we don't know how many episodes there will be for PS. They could go for shorter seasons for the first few books, unless there is pressure to make a 10 episode season to maximize subscriptions.

 

I‘m thinking the following episode count would work well:

PS: 6
CoS: 6 (8 perhaps if they want to expand on the Tom Riddle plotline)
PoA: 8 (again some nice opportunities to expand on Sirius‘s year on the run, or perhaps some Marauders flashbacks if Lupin decides to tell Harry more about his parents‘ childhood years)
GoF: 10
OotP: 10
HBP: 10
DH: 10 (or maybe to a 6/6 split season, as seems to be en vogue?)
CC: 8

Not forcing 10-episode seasons from the start would ease the workload of the child actory and gauge audience reactions while committing fewer resources at first, allowing for some course corrections down the line if necessary.

I‘m still not sold on the conclusion that this is actually a good idea at all, but I guess it‘s as good a money-printing machine as this IP can reasonably expect to be on television.

 

I would hope/expect that they'll use the earlier seasons to build out the world and set the scene. Give us time to really inhabit the castle, discover some of the wonders. Later seasons will be more plot based and action focused and stuff ramps up.

 

Honestly this would only be worth watching for me if they added new material that isn’t directly about Harry.

For example, I would love to see an episode about Tom at Hogwarts.

 

So long as it's better than the trash/hate-crime that is The Wheel of Time, I'll watch it happily.

Then again, maybe they'll outdo Judkins and give it the Legacy treatment: I look forward to Harry gallivanting off to capture toads in his grab bag, run random errands for complete strangers, and collect a crap ton of useless potions that he then can't sell.

 

I'm still mad about the Wheel of Time TV show.

 

I remain convinced of my decision not to watch it. Same for Rings of Power tbh.

 

Tbh I'm just surprised WB are doing anything with this IP after the trashfire that was FB movies.

@Innomine ROP is fine, just remember it's an adaptation.

 

Two easy improvements:
1) Make it animated in an interesting style. This will not be cheap, but since HP needs so much CGI anyway you may end up saving some money and be able to get really imaginative with the visualizations.
2) Expand on non-Harry/Ron/Hermione characters. Harry is (for the most part) the only POV we ever get, but there's always stuff happening in the background. Since at this point the entire series+ is known, you can rewrite the first book to have things make a little more sense and explore what, say, the adult characters are up to to some extent. How important is the mystery of what Harry is looking for anyway? If it's paramount to maintain, simply only expand on things that don't give away the twist/ending, but since we know most adults don't know what's going on anyway, you have a lot of options. Also: All of the other students could be expanded. Then you don't have to race swap any of the three main characters which will raise controversy. Personally I don't care because I think it's ridiculous to care that much about the race of a new version of the same story, but many people definitely would and I wouldn't be surprised if they made Hermione black like in the stage play, for example.

 

HBO is making, uh, one heck of a choice to expand a business partnership with JK Rowling in 2023.

Spoiler: What kind of choice it is

And it sure is a revolting one.

 

I mean after Hogwarts Legacy they clearly see it’s still a cash cow and I think she still has a good amount of say in what’s done with the IP.

 

Well I also don't think they have any choice. These are still the same rights that she sold to WB to make the movies, and those rights were sold under the explicit term that she would be involved in production. I'm pretty sure it's part of the contract.

 

There is still a market for Potterverse content if it's done well (Hogwarts Legacy proves this) and I'm sure there's some stuff in contracts that if WB don't do something with the IP, it becomes available for others to pounce on it. And like Taure said, I doubt they have a choice on whether or not to involve JKR, I'm sure she paid her lawyers handsomely to have the IP locked down tight.