I am more intrigued by HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter television series now that the series showrunner has been confirmed, and she has ties to another book adaptation with a great Rotten Tomatoes score. As a remake of the beloved books and films, each season will adapt one of the books. While numerous episodes per season may allow the series to more faithfully adapt the source material than the movies did, I have been skeptical of the premise, as the movies are overall satisfying, albeit imperfect adaptations of the books, featuring iconic performances and scenes that can never be replaced.

With the announcement that Francesca Gardiner will be the Harry Potter series’ showrunner and an executive producer, I am less skeptical, and even cautiously excited about it now. Gardiner has worked as a producer and writer on several critically acclaimed series. Her production credits include Succession, His Dark Materials, and Killing Eve, and she has written numerous episodes of His Dark Materials and The Man in the High Castle.

Francesca Gardiner Being Harry Potter’s Showrunner Is Very Exciting Thanks To His Dark Materials

Gardiner Produced 6 Episodes And Wrote 5 Episodes

While Succession is the most critically acclaimed of Gardiner’s work, it is her experience on His Dark Materials that makes me most excited about her involvement in the Harry Potter series. As an executive producer and writer on the massively underrated His Dark Materials, which has an 84% critical score on Rotten Tomatoes, Gardiner played an integral role in faithfully adapting the books. She wrote the final three episodes of the series, which feature many of the story’s most ambitious and emotional moments. Thanks to her, the series finale’s bench scene is just as devastating as it is in the source material.

When reading the third book of His Dark Materials, The Amber Spyglass, some of the descriptions and narrative choices were so bold that I had a difficult time imagining them ever working in an onscreen adaptation. Gardiner’s writing not only did the story justice, but provided an emotional depth that felt just as compelling as when I read the books for the first time. Her ability to faithfully adapt such material makes me optimistic about what she can achieve with Harry Potter.

Both Harry Potter and His Dark Materials are cherished series of coming-of-age fantasy novels published in the 1990s and early 2000s, following a young adult protagonist who undergoes the hero’s journey. Despite the similarities, His Dark Materials‘ fantastical universe, and many of its characters, are ultimately more complex than the universe and characters of Harry Potter. This makes what Gardiner and the rest of His Dark Materials‘ creative team accomplished even more impressive and bodes well for what Gardiner and her team can achieve with Harry Potter.

Harry Potter’s Remake Has A Different Challenge To His Dark Materials

Harry Potter’s Movies Are Beloved, The Golden Compass Is Hated

Gardiner’s experience of adapting fantasy novels into a television series, after they’ve already been made into movies, is promising, but Harry Potter‘s remake faces a far greater challenge than His Dark Materials did. That challenge has to do with the quality of the movie adaptations, with The Golden Compass being one of the worst book adaptations I’ve ever seen. It completely changes the ending of the first book, afraid to commit to the daring choices that the source material made, which further opened up the fictional universe and storytelling possibilities for the sequels that followed.

The richly developed world in Pullman’s writing was severely underdeveloped in the movie, as were the characters and the overall story. Given how disappointing the movie was, I was thrilled when I heard that it would be adapted into an HBO series starring Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, and the series easily proved to be the superior adaptation from beginning to end. The Harry Potter series will face a more difficult path given that the movies are still beloved.

With Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone being my favorite of the movies, I will inevitably compare every aspect of the show’s first season to the movie. No matter how book-accurate the series is, it will be difficult to win me over more than the movie did, particularly with iconic moments like Hagrid telling Harry he is a wizard, Hermione trying to teach Ron how to say “Wingardium Leviosa,” and the reveal of Voldemort’s face when Professor Quirrell removes his turban. Nevertheless, Gardiner’s central role in the series convinces me that the Harry Potter series could be a worthy adaptation.