Casting the characters of the Harry Potter remake will be a challenge, but a change in format for the HBO TV series could make all the difference. The project is still in the earliest stages of production, with very few details having been revealed to the public. All we know is that the series is meant to be a 10-year-long, book-faithful adaptation of the Harry Potter books. This still leaves a variety of possibilities open regarding how Warner Bros and HBO will approach the remake, and a couple of different formats are an option.
Warner Bros and HBO are meeting with a few potential writers for the Harry Potter remake, who will pitch their ideas in hopes of becoming the series’ primary showrunner. Of course, these writers already have a foundation to work from. J.K. Rowling’s books and the Warner Bros movies are beloved by a massive fandom, and a remake would need to honor both these versions of Harry’s story to be successful. However, the series will also need to bring something fresh to the table that benefits the story and will make this version of Harry Potter memorable.
HBO’s Harry Potter TV Show: Updates & Everything We Know
Harry Potter is being remade as a television show for HBO Max and every detail about the next adaptation featuring the Boy Wizard can be found here.
HBO’s Harry Potter Remake Could Be An Animated Series
A 2.5D animated Harry Potter series could be a breathtaking success.
Though it has been assumed that HBO’s Harry Potter remake would be live-action like the movies, Warner Bros’ lack of a concrete action plan means that anything is still a possibility. Therefore, there’s a chance that one of the writers being considered will propose an animated series. This would be quite a shift from what audiences know and would, therefore, take some getting used to. However, the success of other recent animated series proves that this format could mean a highly successful Harry Potter adaptation.
Animation has taken leaps and bounds in the last decade. Though the type of 3D animation seen in movies like Frozen is the standard, 2.5D stylized animation has become the new frontier of movie and TV artistry. This is the comic book-like style of the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse films, the 2023 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem movie, and Puss and Boots: The Last Wish (2022), all of which were massive successes. An animated Harry Potter remake series that utilizes 2.5D stylized animation could do just as well—if not better.
2.5D Stylized Animation Project | Gross Global Box Office | Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score |
|---|---|---|
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) | $375,582,637 | 97% |
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023) | $690,615,475 | 95% |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) | $181,721,383 | 95% |
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish | $482,717,594 | 95% |
Animation Would Solve The Harry Potter Remake’s Character Casting Problem
Animated Harry Potter characters could pay homage to the original cast.
Aside from the fact that 2.5D stylized animation makes for some excellent and visually stunning projects, there are practical reasons that this format would work better for the Harry Potter remake. A significant challenge Warner Bros and HBO will face going into the new series is following up the original cast from the Harry Potter movies, especially when it comes to legendary actors like Alan Rickman, Robbie Coltrane, and Michael Gambon, who are memorialized by these characters. If the remake were animated, the character design could be based on these familiar performers.
Additionally, an animated Harry Potter TV series would ensure that each character is a near-perfect representation of their book counterpart. It eliminates the sort of problems faced by the Harry Potter movies, such as actor Daniel Radcliffe having an allergy to green contact lenses or Emma Watson’s prosthetic bucked teeth getting in the way of her performance. These characters could be drawn up precisely as they were described in the books, and voice actors could be selected for their talent rather than whether they look enough like who they are meant to portray.
The Magic Of The Wizarding World Would Be Limitless With Animation
Another obstacle of the Harry Potter movies was the special effects necessary to bring the magic of the wizarding world to life. As the films went on and technology evolved, Warner Bros got better and better at this, but there were still several moments from the books that simply couldn’t be adapted to the screen thanks to the scale and cost (i.e., the Quidditch World Cup in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). Even all these years later, it will be no easy task to include every magical moment from the Harry Potter books into a TV remake—unless it is animated.
Animation would allow for a much more expansive wizarding world as well. The video game Hogwarts Legacy proved just how massive Hogwarts Castle could be, while the Harry Potter movies were limited in how much of the school could actually be shown. A masterfully crafted 2.5D setting could mean a more beautiful and complete version of Hogwarts than has ever been seen on screen. Perhaps Warner Bros’ Harry Potter series could even take inspiration from the sorts of breathtaking backgrounds and sceneries often seen in Studio Ghibli animated films.
An Animated Harry Potter Remake Will Still Face Some Problems
The visual appeal of a 2.5D stylized version of Harry Potter is certainly an exciting idea, but that isn’t to say this format would mean all sunshine and rainbows for Warner Bros and HBO. As well as the animated Spider-Man movies or the updated Ninja Turtles have performed, animation isn’t for everyone, so the Harry Potter remake would risk losing some of the existing fan base by adopting this format. Additionally, given the beloved status of the movies, any such change to the wizarding world is sure to cause controversy.
Still, Warner Bros won’t be able to avoid ruffling feathers with the Harry Potter remake, whether it is animated or not. The franchise as a whole has already been steeped in various controversies, which has made the decision to start Harry’s story over all the more divisive. Since this hasn’t stopped Warner Bros, the company might as well take some more considerable risks by mixing things up in fresh new ways. After all, most major franchises have included an animated installment here and there, so it could be time for Harry Potter to follow suit with a 2.5D stylized animated series.
Harry Potter
Harry Potter is HBO’s remake of the iconic Wizarding World film series that consisted of eight films between 2001 and 2011. Each season adapts a book from JK Rowling’s popular series and provides more book-accurate details than the movies did. Upon the announcement of the Harry Potter TV show, the series received harsh criticism for the involvement of Rowling and for many thinking a reboot was unnecessary.
- Seasons
- 1
- Streaming Service(s)
- HBO Max
- Franchise(s)
- Harry Potter
