The daily gossip: HBO Max might reboot Harry Potter, Barbie's new trailer ends with a surprisingly adult joke, and more

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint at the premiere of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2

(Image credit: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)

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1. A 'Harry Potter' reboot may be coming to HBO Max
2. New 'Barbie' trailer ends with a surprisingly adult joke
3. Original 'Shrek' cast in talks to return for a 5th film
4. Scarlett Johansson doesn't use social media due to her 'fragile' ego
5. Harry Styles passed on 'The Little Mermaid' in favor of 'darker' projects, according to director

published 4 April 2023

1. A 'Harry Potter' reboot may be coming to HBO Max

Yer not TV, Harry, yer HBO. Warner Bros. Discovery is nearing a deal to reboot Harry Potter as a television series, according to a bombshell report from Bloomberg. The plan is to go back and adapt J.K. Rowling's seven original books again, with each season being based on one of them, the report says. Rowling would reportedly be involved, not on a day-to-day level but possibly enough to generate boycotts due to her controversial views on the trans community. According to Deadline, the series would be for HBO Max. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has discussed his desire to do more with Harry Potter, though some thought a Cursed Child movie with the original cast was more likely than a reboot. But this potential HBO Max adaptation would provide room to explore all the details from the books the movies left out, not to mention finally provide the gratuitous Hagrid sex scenes fans have long demanded.

Christopher Nolan is in shambles. Warner Bros. has dropped a new trailer and a bunch of character posters for Greta Gerwig's Barbie, confirming Dua Lipa is in the movie playing a mermaid Barbie. The trailer also has John Cena, whose involvement wasn't previously announced, listed in its epic wall of credits. While light on plot, the new footage suggests the film will be filled with humor geared towards adults, as when Ryan Gosling's Ken asks Margot Robbie's Barbie if he can "stay over tonight," but when she asks what they would do, he takes a long pause before answering, "I'm actually not sure." The final joke is then an extended sexual innuendo, with Gosling warning Simu Liu, while at the beach, "If I wasn't severely injured, I would beach you off right now!" So expect to see that on a BuzzFeed listicle of "adult jokes in movies that went over your head as a kid" around 2035.

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Paging Martin Scorsese: Cinema isn't dead after all. The original cast of Shrek is in talks to return for a fifth installment, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri confirmed to Variety. Although no deals have officially been made, he sounded optimistic, telling the outlet, "We anticipate the cast coming back. Talks are starting now, and every indication that we've gotten is there's tremendous enthusiasm on behalf of the actors to return." This comes after last year's Puss in Boots: The Last Wish suggested another Shrek movie is coming via a Marvel-style teaser in the final scene. Eddie Murphy has also said he'd be down to return, noting earlier this year that he'd do Shrek 5 in "two seconds," and Meledandri appeared open to a potential Donkey spinoff. The hierarchy of power in the Shrek universe is about to change.

She can face Thanos, but Twitter is a whole different beast. Scarlett Johansson said on the Skinny Confidential Him & Her podcast she's not on social media because she's "too fragile a person" for it. "My ego is too fragile," she explained. "I can't deal with it. My brain is too fragile. I'm like a delicate flower. I have enough anxiety." The actress continued that she did have Instagram "once for three days," but she had to delete it after she blew 20 minutes looking through a random person's account and it made her want to change her entire lifestyle to be more like them. "I felt so bad, like I was missing out on this random person's life," she said. "I was like, 'I can't do this.' I'm too fragile. I have so much anxiety about other things." The stars, they need to log off just like us!

Harry Styles wasn't down to be part of their world. Director Rob Marshall confirmed to Entertainment Weekly he met with the singer, a "wonderful guy," about playing Prince Eric in the live-action The Little Mermaid remake. But according to Marshall, Styles turned down the role because he "really felt like he wanted to go off and do the movies that he ended up doing, which were sort of darker." Styles was rumored to have landed the part in 2019 until it was confirmed he actually passed on it. According to Marshall, he was "really looking to do something not in the musical genre" and "really stretch himself" at the time. The role of Eric ended up going to a less established name, Jonah Hauer-King, and Marshall told EW he's "so happy to have two young, new people in the film." Styles, meanwhile, went off and made Don't Worry Darling, a film whose behind-the-scenes drama reminded us all that the human world, it's a mess.

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Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.