What if the series had been made into a television show rather than 8 movies? The idea came to my mind when I was reading a post about how episodic Harry Potter fanfiction stories are, which is why they get so long winded and in huge word-counts yet have seemingly little progression from a year to year basis.

I'd imagine each year would get a standard 22-episode season to itself, with the 7th year getting two-seasons in and of itself to better show off the war and might even spend some time showing Neville and the others in Hogwarts. Cedric, Cho and other Post-POA characters might have gotten early introductions in cameos or small roles to make them recognisable to the viewers when GoF came around...

Thoughts?

 

It hurt to read this, because I want it so fucking bad. D: D:

 

We will have to wait a few years, but I expect something like this to happen.

It is a way to milk the cow once more, so WB will likely do it. The question is how much will it cost and how high is the expected income.

 

It could only be pulled off by American TV networks/actors, because we're crap at long tv series. Low production values and all that, crap lighting, static camera shots, BAD acting. (Robin Hood, Merlin, that terrible program about a kid who's hunted by various leveled monsters, Demons and the actual HP movies support this)

 

What about Doctor Who?

 

Doctor Who is a fine show, but even though it's one of the most successful - critically, financially and ratings wise - the BBC still slashed its budget recently. Try and work out how many scenes there are with large scale effects; not as many as you think, I suspect. I don't think British TV would be able to do justice to it, and I doubt Rowling would let any of the American channels get their hands on it.

 

I think one version with actors is enough, but I'm all for animation so there wouldn't be any problems with money.

But no matter if it's animation or not, I'd love if creators explored HP verse much more than it was showed in books. More, I'm pretty sure that now when she is done with them there are things that Rowling would like to change if she had a chance to rewrite books. Why not make it in the series? Or even writers of the show could make some minor changes to make it better (like, you know, make romance between Harry and Ginny more believable).

 

Wow... That could actually be really good. 0.o

 

Not trying to be pessimistic here but it's not entirely unlikely that we will see a TV series based on the next generation.

Think about it, there are lots of people in the next generation (=good for a TV show) and the manuscript is not as limited as a redo of HP would be.

I would probably throw my TV out of the window though...

 

You know, that made me think one crazy idea - how cool would it be if Rowling would free HP verse for other authors to use (under her guidance of course). Sort of like with Star Wars. And if that happened why not to create AU series of books (alias authorized fanfiction ), because we all know that people would buy them if they were recommended by Rowling herself.

 

A next gen show wouldn't actually be that bad if they changed a lot of things. Like if they modeled it after Catharsis or if they changed things drastically so that it isn't all rainbows and sunshine 19 years later.

 

Eh - a next generation story would end like "Worst Witch" or "Zero no Tsukaima".

Both have some remarkable similarities with Hogwarts, but in the end they are just random generic highschool stories with a twist. Though Zero no Tsukaima has one awesome Dumbledore scene... (start 4:36 - 6:16) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYzDVMXsMd8

 

Word down the grapevine on the production end about 2(?) years ago had it that someone was looking at dev'ing a Marauders-era TV show/mini series, but it was either never optioned (aka never made it as far as Rowling's desk) or was canned in case the books-that-wouldn't-be-but-still-might were marauders based.

Creatively speaking, I personally hope the potterverse never makes it to the small screen. While a marauder-era show would be a good comedy, it'd a) be Hp fans only and about 20% of them at that which make up the audience, and b) would have the opposite problem to the films; they'd have minutes to fill, JK wouldn't do any of the writing herself, so it'd be so far out of reach of what we have in canon now it'd essentially be fanfiction. I think the same problem would exist for a next-gen.

Either way, it'd essentially be what Caprica was to Battlestar Galactica; trying to make it its own thing and coming out a bit rubbish in the process by not appealing enough to die-hard fans of canon and not having a strong enough story to carry a foreign audience.

/GL's 2 cents

EDIT: Bizarrely, having mentioned BsG, Ron Moore is making an 'HP style show' apparently. And this exact thread topic is also discussed here.

 

It could be amazing, if an American studio used a British cast. That won't happen though.

 

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Some dude here had started the topic as well.

 

Well, its slightly different I guess. You discussed animated, I went for live action, like Smallville or Supernatural or Buffy.

 

Heh, I know - just giving you shit.

My biggest argument for animation, aside from conveying magic effectively, is the lack of casting concerns. Rowling couldn't be involved (because she's a derp), but putting an overly-pretty cast, a la Smallville, isn't ideal either. Some degree of relative athleticism would be ideal as well, for some realistic fight choreography.

Then there's dealing with the aging, and making sure they don't pull a "WTF bad genes" like Felton, Wright, and (debatably) Radcliffe pulled as they got older.

 

I was going to save my 100th post to post my first work of fanfiction. Now, I'm using it to ask why the hell nobody has made a Harry Potter crossover where Harry is summoned as her familiar?

As for the tv show, I really hope it never happens. I have a feeling that it would end badly.