Is the Harry Potter equivalent of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on the horizon?
During an investor call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav expressed hope that "we can do something with" J.K. Rowling to develop more Harry Potter movies, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"We're going to focus on franchises," Zaslav said. "We haven't had a Superman movie in 13 years. We haven't done a Harry Potter in 15 years."
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That comment seemed to suggest Zaslav wants to revive the main Harry Potter series, as the studio has already been releasing prequels, the Fantastic Beasts movies, which are written by Rowling — though his remarks elicited some confusion considering Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 was released 11 years ago, not 15. Either way, Zaslav was also signaling a desire to continue working with Rowling despite the controversy surrounding her tweets about transgender people, which have been condemned from stars from the films, including Daniel Radcliffe.
Some have speculated the franchise could be revived via an adaptation of the stage show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which would involve bringing back the original cast. Chris Columbus, director of the first two Potter films, has expressed interest in returning for a Cursed Child movie. But whether stars like Radcliffe would do so, and would work with Rowling again given the transphobia controversy, is an open question. Radcliffe told The New York Times this year returning to Potter is "not something I'm really interested in doing right now."
There's also the matter of Fantastic Beasts, which was originally expected to consist of five films. But after the most recent two struggled at the box office, don't be surprised if parts four and five never see the light of day.
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