Modern cinema seems to hold little regard for the idea of an original story. Originality has been drowned in a flood of IP adaptations, endless remakes and extended franchises. At time of writing, The Mario Bros Movie has just dominated in the box office, The Mandalorian, a Star Wars spin-off, is rated number one on IMDB’s website, and Fast X, the eleventh film in the Fast and Furious franchise is set to be released in the coming weeks. In this landscape of sequels and remakes, it is hardly surprising that HBO Max has recently announced a remake of one of the most successful series of all time: Harry Potter.
HBO are coming off the back of the astronomical success of Game of Thrones and spin-off series House of the Dragon, and it is exciting that they’re now turning their attention to the most successful fantasy series of all time. I am a huge Harry Potter fan (books specifically) and the idea of a Harry Potter TV series has a lot of appeal to me. But I’m not sure what HBO Max has announced is exactly what I, or many other fans, had in mind.
There are so many avenues of wizarding world lore that could be explored with a spin off series. Popular votes include an origin story for Dumbledore that depicts his youth and friendship turned conflict with Grindelwald. Alternatively, the marauders at Hogwarts: Harry’s father James along with Sirius, Remus and Peter causing mischief in their school years, James’ romance with Lily and rivalry with Snape. I personally like the idea of a prequel surrounding the Hogwarts founders, showing us how they came together and how and why they created the school. It could go into the leadership politics and the eventual division between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and how Rowena and Helga responded to it. Any of these options would have been sure to captivate audiences and add significantly to the body of fictional work that brings Rowling’s universe to life. But instead, HBO Max have announced a remake of the original Harry Potter story, despite it only being twelve years since the original movie adaptations.
The films have become so entrenched in popular culture that these actors have already provided what many see as the definitive depiction of their characters.
The movie series achieved a level of success rarely seen before, and helped catapult Harry Potter from a series that was already a household name into one of the most ground-breaking and renowned fantasy worlds of all time. The actors who brought the characters to life over a ten-year period became integral to the Harry Potter universe, so much so that to many, especially those who have not read the books, Daniel Radcliffe is Harry Potter, Emma Watson is Hermione. The films have become so entrenched in popular culture that these actors have already provided what many see as the definitive depiction of their characters. Any remake now will naturally invite comparison to the films and thus be received negatively. I for one cannot see how anyone will ever top Maggie Smith’s McGonagall, Robbie Coltrane’s Hagrid or Alan Rickman’s Snape.
However, from the perspective of a hardcore book fan, an overhaul series does provide the opportunity to rectify a lot of the things that the movies got wrong. With at least a whole season dedicated to each book, there’s room for a fully fleshed out story with all the characters (Peeves the Poltergeist, Ludo Bagman) and scenes that are left out of the movies due to their more limited run time. But more importantly, the series could remedy the disservice given to specific characters in the movies, most notably Ron, Ginny and Dumbledore.
In the books, Ginny is the amalgamation of the best Weasley attributes. She is courageous, mischievous and quidditch obsessed, traits held in respective abundance by her older brothers. She’s independent, talented and underestimated. It makes sense that she ends up with Harry, as she has a small amount of all his most valued traits. Their relationship is teased from the very beginning, and we see Ginny grow from shy and underestimated to confident and independent. In the movies however, her character has almost no personality whatsoever. All the scenes crucial to her development are left out, making her nothing more than Ron’s sister.
Ron is handled with even less respect. The close friendship between Harry and Ron in the books is sacrificed in the films for a much closer focus on Hermione. There are plenty of scenes early in the books that build Ron and Harry’s bond, mostly based around their shared humour and getting into trouble with teachers. They are compared to Fred and George, or even James and Sirius. Ron also acts as a window into the magical world for Harry and Hermione, as he is the only one of the three who had a magical upbringing. He has the colloquial knowledge that Hermione’s academic mind lacks. Yet none of this makes it to the screen. Almost all of Ron’s most important and characterising lines in the books are given to Hermione in the films by extremely biased-towards-Hermione screen writer Steve Kloves. Kloves cut all character from the Ron portrayed by Rupert Grint and pasted it to Emma Watson’s Hermione, so he could put more emphasis on his favourite character. However what Kloves failed to realise is that stripping Ron’s character also strips Hermione. They are a dichotomy, highlighting and making up for each other’s flaws, and individually representing important friends to Harry. In the movies, Hermione is omniscient and flawless, making her much less believable than her book counterpart, while Ron is left as simply the redhaired guy who hangs around Harry.
But of all the mistakes in the movies, perhaps most upsetting of all is the misinterpretation of Dumbledore. Michael Gambon admitted to having never read the books, and it shows. In many ways, Dumbledore is the physical embodiment of the magical world: mysterious, wonderful, and unusual. The Dumbledore of the books is extremely odd. He makes strange jokes and acts in a way that is amusing to us as a muggle audience. He’s always measured and calm, speaking gently in a way that conveys power without having to use it. Yet Michael Gambon seemed to take far more inspiration from Ian McKellen as Gandalf than he does Rowling’s books. Instead of being calm and graceful, Gambon was active and forceful, charging around with frantic purpose on screen. Taking away the mystery and humour removes a lot of Dumbledore’s charm, resulting in him feeling less like the character and more like a quintessential wizard, generic to the genre and not specific to the story. Diluting the most important character like this takes some of the magic out of Harry Potter for me.
A longer, more expansive project with time spent on fleshing out the details could provide a strong foundation from which to launch the spin-offs we all want to see
So maybe it is the case that a TV series will be far more accurate to the books and satisfy a books lover like me in an appropriate interpretation of the major characters. A longer, more expansive project with time spent on fleshing out the details could provide a strong foundation from which to launch the spin-offs we all want to see. But the fact remains that the series is ambitious, and even if it is pulled off without a hitch, it will mean us waiting another decade before we see the sequel or prequel that I’m longing for.
Changes in the infrastructure of the storytelling industry and audience expectations do not mean that we should feel the need to go back and remake historical successes in the new medium.
When the Harry Potter books were first released, there wasn’t the platform for the extended TV series. But now a TV series coming in at forty hours or more is the norm, and we have lots of different streaming services to deliver them. But changes in the infrastructure of the storytelling industry and audience expectations do not mean that we should feel the need to go back and remake historical successes in the new medium. I am excited for the Harry Potter series, but I would have preferred to see a new direction for the franchise, with fresh stories explored. There are fresh stories in the Harry Potter universe waiting to be told, and they are ones that would satisfy book lovers without clashing with the memory of an already entrenched series of movies.
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