HBO's 'Harry Potter' Series Gets A Showrunner And Director: Everything We Know So Far

 

This illustration photo created in Los Angeles shows the upcoming Harry Potter series announcement.

An Emmy-award winning director is set to executive produce and direct several episodes of HBO's upcoming "Harry Potter" TV show, and Francesca Gardiner, a "Succession" and "His Dark Materials" producer, has been named as showrunner for the still-untitled series based on the original novels.

KEY FACTS

Mark Mylod, who directed several episodes of "Game of Thrones," "Succession" and the Golden Globe-nominated film "The Menu,” and Gardiner will both executive produce alongside series author J.K. Rowling, Neil Blair, Ruth Kenley-Letts and David Heyman of Heyday Films, Variety reported.

Mylod will also direct several episodes of the show, which will be released over the course of a decade and turn each of the series' seven books into a separate season.

No casting or writing announcements for the show have been made, nor has an official premiere date been announced, but the series is expected to debut on HBO and the Warner Bros. Discovery Max streaming service in 2026.

The Harry Potter TV series has been a long time coming—it was first rumored to be in development in 2021, formally ordered in April of 2023 and has been billed as a "faithful adaptation" of one of history's most successful franchises.

Rowling has praised HBO for its commitment to "preserving the integrity" of the books and said the new adaptation "will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long form television series."

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“The series will feature a new cast to lead a new generation of fandom, full of the fantastic detail and much-loved characters ‘Harry Potter’ fans have loved for over twenty-five years,” the show’s logline reads. “Each season will bring ‘Harry Potter’ and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world.”

KEY BACKGROUND

The wizarding adventures of Harry Potter took the world by storm when the first book, released in the United States as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” was published in 1997. Six more books were released over the next 10 years and the series went on to be one of the bestselling in the world, selling more than 500 million copies worldwide in 80 languages. The first "Harry Potter" film shot child actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint to super stardom. Iconic British actors like Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith and Gary Oldman also had roles in the series, which went on to gross $2.39 billion domestically across 8 movies. A play called "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," adapted from an original J.K. Rowling story and set 19 years after the events of the original series, opened in the West End in London in 2016 and on Broadway in 2018. In 2016, a spin-off film series was launched with "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplays with Steve Kloves, and David Yates, who also directed the final four films in the original series, directed. Three “Fantastic Beasts” films have been released starring Eddie Redmayne and they've grossed $489 million domestically.

SURPRISING FACT

An original watercolor work that was used as the cover art for the first book in the Harry Potter series was expected to fetch between $400,000 and $600,000 at a Sotheby's auction earlier this month. The art was featured on Bloomsbury Publishing's first edition covers of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" in 1997. The auction ended Tuesday, but no final sale price has been announced. It's possible it will break the current record for the most expensive Harry Potter item ever sold—a first edition of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone" auctioned off for $421,000 in Dallas in 2021.