New trailers suggest a new Harry Potter movie is in the works and will be released in 2025, leaving many to wonder about the future of the magical franchise.
Since the Fantastic Beasts trilogy ended in 2022 with the release of The Secrets of Dumbledore, no new on-screen content from The Wizarding World has been released.
Is a Harry Potter Movie Coming Out in 2025?
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was a play written by Jack Thorne, which first premiered in 2016.
Adapted from an original story by Thorne and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, the project was set 19 years after The Deathly Hallows.
Since its release, many fans have wondered if The Cursed Child would ever be turned into a feature film as the Harry Potter books were in the 2000s and early 2010s.
Due to its popularity, many fan-made concept trailers have been released over the past months and years, leading people to believe that a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child movie could be released sometime in the future, potentially as early as 2025.
However, no official announcements regarding that topic have been made by those at The Wizarding World or Warner Bros., meaning those trailers are fake. But the franchise still has an exciting future.
The Future of the Harry Potter Universe
Once upon a time, there were reports that a new Harry Potter movie could be in the works with some of the original cast set to return.
However, that project seems to have come to a stop and will likely never happen because many of the actors do not want to return.
For example, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe (Hermione Granger and Harry Potter, respectively) have openly opposed Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling due to the controversies surrounding her.
However, although a new movie is likely not in the works anymore, a brand-new series is currently in the works at Max and will completely reboot the franchise from the beginning.
The Harry Potter reboot series was first confirmed in April 2023 by Deadline.
Along with the announcement, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content Casey Bloys revealed that "Warner Bros. Television and J.K. Rowling" would be partnering with Max to "dive deep into each of the iconic books:"
"In partnership with Warner Bros. Television and J.K. Rowling, this new Max Original series will dive deep into each of the iconic books that fans have continued to enjoy for all of these years."
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav also commented on the new series, revealing that it would span the course of "ten consecutive years," meaning that the series will start at the beginning of the book series with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's (or Sorcerer's) Stone and end with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
"My wife and I, we read (the Harry Potter books) to each of our three kids….It’s really moving, for ten consecutive years, people will see Harry Potter on HBO; I mean it’s really something."
In April 2023, it was also rumored that executives were searching for more people of color to star in the upcoming Max show, with the possibility that Hermione Granger, one of the main characters, would be as such.
New developments regarding the upcoming series slowed down throughout the rest of 2023 as the Hollywood writers' and actors' strikes were ongoing.
However, in January 2024, Deadline revealed multiple writers were being brought in to pitch their ideas for the new series.
According to the report, names such as Martha Hillier (The Last Kingdom), Kathleen Jordan (Teenage Bounty Hunters), Tom Moran (The Devil's Hour), and Michael Lesslie (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) were all bringing ideas to the table.
However, the next month, Deadline reported that only three writers were being considered to lead the series, with Succession's Francesca Gardiner being one of them.
Another new update was given in February during Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD) Q4 earnings call. As Variety shared, WBD CEO David Zaslav announced that Season 1 would be released in 2026 and that the plan is to release seven seasons in total, one for each book.
Of course, since the original Harry Potter movie series is so beloved, many fans are still wondering if any of the cast members from those films could make a special cameo appearance.
At the recent Drama League Awards, E! News caught up with Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe, and asked him that very question.
According to Radcliffe, it seems as though the executives want to make "a clean break" from the original actors, meaning that he will not be in the show:
"I don’t think so. I think they very wisely want to [have] a clean break. And I don’t know if it would work to have us do anything in it."
However, Radcliffe admitted that he is "very excited" about the show and will be taking it in "as an audience member:"
"Like the rest of the world, [I’m] very excited to watch as an audience member."
The new Harry Potter series on Max is eyeing a 2026 release date.
Read more about The Wizarding Worlds of Harry Potter on The Direct:
Harry Potter Director Breaks Silence on Reboot With New Actors
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