With Max's Harry Potter Series, Could More Hogwarts-Related Projects Be Coming?

Arguably the biggest news to come out of the latest Warner Bros. Discovery press conference was the announcement of a TV series reboot of the "Harry Potter" franchise, which will adapt every single book again, this time with a more "faithful" adaptation that spans the course of an actual decade. It is a baffling, shocking, and quite enraging bit of news, even if it makes sense from a business perspective.

First of all, there's the controversy surrounding disgraced author J.K. Rowling, who will be directly involved in the new show, despite how her internet comments have sullied the franchise for many fans. Add in the fact that this is just the same story again, and the result is a very underwhelming and disappointing announcement, particularly when we're coming off a spin-off film series that was apparently abandoned halfway through, as well as an incredibly successful video game that told a completely new story.

So why are we stuck with Harry yet again? Say what you will about the books and the quality of the writing for the series, but there is no denying what this world and the basic idea of a school of magic mean for people. Shouldn't we be able to explore more stories than the same one about The Boy Who Lived and the snake-faced, fascist wizard? Apparently, we may not be for long.

During a Q&A after Warner Bros. Discovery's conference announcing the new Max streaming service that combines HBO Max and Discovery+ (via Deadline), Zaslav revealed that the studio is "free to do anything we want" with the property. "Some areas we need to do with J.K., other areas we have the full ability to go forward. This is a full deployment on Max of 'Harry Potter.' We can still develop other properties." And that might be where there's hope for this "Harry Potter" reboot. 

The question of what exactly Warner Bros. can do with "Harry Potter" was already complicated, but Zaslav's comments just made it a lot more confusing. You see, it was long believed that J.K. Rowling had full control over the characters and her world and that nothing could be done without her control. 

Indeed, Rowling has been involved with almost every piece of licensed "Harry Potter" project to date, from the movies to the theme parks, which is a big reason why fans have a hard time separating the art from the artist. Former chairman and CEO of Warner Bros Entertainment, Kevin Tsujihara reportedly made a rather big deal with Rowling in order to make the "Fantastic Beasts" movies, granting Rowling so much creative control the studio was not able to hire someone to rewrite her scripts (her first time doing so) without her approval. Likewise, Zaslav said in a previous investors call that he wanted to work with Rowling on making more "Harry Potter" movies, lamenting the fact that they "haven't done a 'Harry Potter' in 15 years" despite there being a Wizarding World movie that came out literally one year ago. 

These new comments seem to be the first time someone at the studio has outright said they can do something on their own without Rowling's involvement. This leaves us with a new question: what can they do? Could we get more Potter-related projects? We hope the answer actually lies outside of Harry Potter's story. 

The most obvious way forward is to go backward. Even before the final "Harry Potter" book was published, fans have long discussed a prequel story about Harry's parents and the original Order of the Phoenix during the first rise of Voldemort. The problem with any such story that is inherently connected to the main books and movies is that they run into a similar problem that the "Fantastic Beasts" movies did — how do you tell a story that is new and exciting, which also connects to what fans know but doesn't overwhelm the new characters? Making matters more complicated is that something so connected to the characters of the books will likely have to involve Rowling all over again.

The answer, then, is probably to go the "Star Wars" Expanded Universe route. Things like Ilvermorny School of Magic from "Fantastic Beasts" or the lore of the video games, which Rowling had nothing to do with, the latest of which ("Hogwarts Legacy") is completely unconnected to the main books. Just as "Star Wars" is digging into the past with "The Acolyte" and "Dawn of the Jedi," why not go all the way back to medieval times in Hogwarts? What about something looking at the Salem witch trials through the lens of the Wizarding World? There are endless possibilities!

There are many reasons to be wary of re-making the same old "Harry Potter" once again, but Zaslav's comments about having the freedom to pursue other projects in the franchise doesn't necessarily have to be something bad. We are not getting rid of Hogwarts anytime soon, so why not finally do something fresh and good with it?