According to THR, Paapa Essiedu is currently being eyed to play Harry’s dick of a potions master.

Here’s a look at Essiedu in Melissa McCarthy’s Genie:

Though I did post a trailer for a comedic movie, Essiedu is still pretty great with dramatic roles. He is best known for playing Kwame in HBO’s I May Destroy You.

For context, Severus Snape was originally played by Alan Rickman in the Potter movies. He spends a huge chunk of the franchise just being Harry’s meanest (sometimes downright cruel) teacher, but it’s revealed that he has a very emotional connection to Harry that some fans think is over-romanticized.

Admittedly, there is currently a ton of backlash ever since it was reported that Essiedu was being eyed for the role, and it’s for the exact reason that you would suspect. Though I think Essiedu would be a great pick, having him cast as Snape is no doubt going to result in a PR nightmare for him—just ask any POC who’s worked on Star Wars.

For now, there are people who have been calling out big companies like Disney to have systems in place to defend people of color whenever they get cast in controversial roles. This has got to me the most sensible take:

Hot take: I actually am against casting non-white people to play popular fictional characters until these studios have actionable plans to protect black people cast in these roles. I do not enjoy experiencing the digital lynching that occurs every 3 months as a cast is announced. https://t.co/dhHm2R1zRj

— (@damitsunami) December 4, 2024

Personally, I am all for more diverse casting, and if they’re going to reboot Potter anyway, I would want it to feel as far away from the original adaptation as possible; different music, different casting choices, different everything.

The Potter series is expected to come out sometime in 2027.

Talking to Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live (via Variety), Fiennes was asked to comment on a rumor going around about Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) being considered for the role of Voldemort, to which Fiennes replies, “Cillian is a fantastic actor… That’s a wonderful suggestion. I would be all in favor of Cillian. Yeah.”

So far, the only major casting news that the movie’s received is that of Mark Rylance (The BFG) being eyed to play the new Albus Dumbledore. Besides that, only this rumor about Murphy being eyed for Voldemort.

If anything, Cillian does seem perfect for the role. We already know he can play evil characters, but he can definitely pull off a noseless snake-human and a posh twink like Tom Riddle.

With Voldemort not expected to make a personal appearance until Goblet of Fire, it may be too early to cast the role now. I guess he does make an appearance in Sorcerer’s Stone, but nobody ever talks about Richard Bremmer being the OG He Who Must Not be Named. At best, they would want to see who the busier actors are 2 years before Goblet of Fire, then they can have their pick for Wizard Snake Hitler.

No release date has been set for the Harry Potter reboot, but fans are hoping for a 2026 premiere.

In a recent Q&A with reporters (via IGN), HBO head Casey Bloys was asked just how involved Rowling would be in the upcoming Potter reboot, to which he says, “She’s been fairly involved… She was very involved in the process of selecting the writer and director, and I imagine she’ll have opinions on casting. It hasn’t affected the casting or hiring of writers and production staff. So we haven’t felt an impact from that.”

With Rowling now being such a controversial figure, Bloys had previously mentioned about the Potter reboot, “Our priority is what’s on the screen. Obviously, the Harry Potter story is incredibly affirmative and positive and about love and self-acceptance. That’s our priority — what’s on screen.”

Though some fans argue that a Potter reboot simply isn’t necessary, this reboot is said to be a more faithful adaptation of the books, and with the more generous television format, there is now more room for scenes that had to be deleted from the films like Norbert the dragon escaping Hogwarts to the actual match at the Quidditch World Cup.

Of course, there are some concerns with the shift to television—like the quality of the VFX from episode to episode; but I’m honestly more concerned about the kids who will have to commit maybe 10 years of their lives making this show. Even Emma Watson almost quit the franchise around the time of Prisoner of Azkaban.

For now, the series is still in development, and production is expected to start sometime next year.

The game came out last year, and Variety reports that a sequel is already in the works and is a ‘very big priority’ for WB. No details have been released about the game, but it’s said that the games team is currently ‘coordinating some of the big-picture storytelling elements’ with the HBO series—hopefully making one cohesive continuity.

When it comes to the canon of Hogwarts Legacy, the game doesn’t exactly follow the details of the films, but is more of a meshing of elements from both the books and the films. It would probably be difficult to keep the continuity consistent with the TV series as it goes along, but if they manage to pull it off, it would be one amazing coordinated feat.

Who knows, maybe they can even share assets between the game and series, which could make things easier on both productions. What’s important is that WB is thinking ahead when it comes to this franchise, and they already have the original eight films to set the bar in terms of quality and faithfulness to the source material.

Honestly, I was always on the team to just keep expanding the world, but with Fantastic Beasts dying out in the box office, it’s understandable that WB would want a sure one. I think that starting a new canon could ruin any fans who are already invested with the existing Potter films.

Then again, that’s just my opinion.

No release date has been set for the Hogwarts Legacy sequel, but the game is now playable for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4|5.

In a recent talk with Variety, Law talks about the notes he got from J.K. Rowling about the characterization of Dumbledore, “I had a pretty clear sense of where it was going to go,” and he explained that young Dumbledore always saw himself as a monster “And that’s why he liked Newt… because Newt took care of monsters.”

It also had something to do with Dumbledore having been smitten by Grindelwald—which ultimately led to his sister’s death. Law continues:

“Because of Dumbledore’s past… I think he always felt guilty that he had been misled because he was in love. It followed him. He found himself to be unlovable because he trusted his heart.”

When it comes to the future of the Fantastic Beasts franchise, Law explained, “I know it’s certainly on hold.” For now, WB is currently working on a full reboot of Potter with the production on the search for new child actors to play the lead trio of Harry, Ron and Hermoine. Law continues, “My guess would be that, now that they’re doing ‘Harry Potter’ as a TV show, they’ll probably put their energy into that. I certainly haven’t heard that there’s anything on the horizon.”

Personally, I thought that it was a mistake to pivot the Fantastic Beasts franchise from Newt to Dumbledore. Newt already had his own thing going on in a whole new era, but the movies just decided to make him a sort of spectator to the clash between Dumbledore and Grindelwald.

A lot of fans think that they should have just focused on Dumbledore from the get-go, but what happened has happened, and now a whole new bunch of kids are going to have to spend a good chunk of their adolescence playing child wizards on television.

No release date has been set for the Harry Potter reboot, but fans are expecting a 2026 release.

Speaking at MIPCOM’s C-Suit Conversations (via THR), Dungey talks about the Potter series:

“There’s not a lot to talk about at this moment. We’ve got our fantastic writing staff in place and they are doing what they need to do. And casting calls have opened up in the U.K. and Ireland, so the process is moving along. It’s going quite well.”

So far, the casting call has been announced looking for child actors who would be 11-years-old by the time the production started shooting sometime next year. Besides that, no other pieces of casting of pre-production have been confirmed. Dungey continues:

“It’s an unbelievable dream, honestly, and as somebody who is a huge fan of books, the opportunity to get to explore them in maybe a little bit more in-depth than you can in just a two-hour film, that’s the whole reason we’re on this journey.”

Admittedly, the series has managed to nab some great talent with Francesca Gardiner attached as the showrunner and Mark Mylod directing multiple episodes—both have had significant work done on HBO’s latest hit series Succession. Then again, we don’t know how that would translate into a children’s series that is expected to age up over the next couple of years.

As a huge fans of the films (who has also read the books), I do think that rebooting Potter seems like a huge gamble—and one that doesn’t even need to be made. The original movies feel pretty timeless; but the franchise has unfortunately gone stagnant, and attempts at spinoffs like the Fantastic Beasts films failed to get off the ground.

No release date has been set for the first season of the Potter series, but maybe a 2026 premiere would be a realistic guess.

With the reboot of Potter incoming, Harris was asked if he was interested in taking on the role of Dumbledore, since he’s around the right age for it. Talking to The Independent, Harris declined, saying, “No, thank you.” Commenting on the reboot itself, Harris said, “Why do it? I don’t understand. The films were fantastic – leave them alone.”

For a while, it did seem like WB was going to leave the original Potter films alone, with their establishment of the Wizarding World brand. The initial plan seemed to be for WB to just expand on the world of Potter, with prequels like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them bringing fans to other places in the magic world outside of Hogwarts.

However, it wasn’t expected that the Fantastic Beasts films would lose their steam in the box office. Though Newt Scamander seemed like a good protagonist, he had been sidelined when the movies had decided to put the focus on the clash between Dumbledore and his ex-lover Grindelwald.

When it comes to the reboot of the Potter books, this new adaptation is said to be more faithful to the books, adapting story points that couldn’t be fit into 2-hour films. While it’s great that we could get characters like Winky and scenes like the Quidditch World Cup, some more practical fans are wondering if the show will be able to keep up with the visual effects and production value that the original movies had.

Besides that, what kind of stress would the Harry Potter series be putting the new trio of kids who are playing Harry, Ron, and Hermoine? That’s at least a 10-year commitment for kids so young. It’s kind of a miracle that Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson stayed till the end—Watson even almost quit.

For now, no release date has been set for the Harry Potter reboot.

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Francesca Gardiner will serve as showrunner for the Harry Potter series. What’s more, the show has also tapped Mark Mylod (Succession) to direct multiple episodes. Gardiner has also worked on series like Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, and His Dark Materials. On the big screen, he’s directed the the Ralph Fiennes movie The Menu.

The series was said to have been in development since 2021, and though it was originally set to release exclusively on Max, the show has been branded as an HBO Original, so that means that it will release on cable as well as stream on Max at the same time.

Here’s what Potter author J.K. Rowling had to say about Gardiner landing the role:

I'm truly thrilled to announce our director and writer, both of whom I interviewed as part of the production team. Both have a genuine passion for #HarryPotter, and having read Francesca's pilot script and heard Mark's vision, I'm certain the TV show will more than live up to… https://t.co/Cp146BXMny

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 26, 2024

Though the Potter film franchise was considered to be a huge success, there have criticisms about the films not being able to contain everything that was in the books. Certain characters had been removed for time, and some plot elements have also been shuffled around.

Personally, I would have preferred if they just kept expanding the world with new material, but it has been 20 years since Sorcerer’s Stone, and maybe a new generation of kids are ready to fall in love with their own version of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine.

No release date has been announced for the Harry Potter reboot, but it’s possible they could be aiming for a 2026 release.

The last Quidditch-focused game fans got was Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup back in 2003, and now there’s been a big reveal for Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions. Check this out:

We don’t have an extensive look at the gameplay, but it does look like some elements are being shows in the cinematic, from the top-down view to the shot in the end with the chaser approaching a goal.

It also looks like the game will allows players to participate in school-level matches of Quidditch as well as the World Cup—seeing that Quidditch star Viktor Krum can also be seen in the trailer.

Seeing that there’s no regular sport that represents Quidditch, I imagine the gameplay is going to be split among the different positions in a Quidditch team i.e., Chaser, Keeper, Beater, and Seeker. It’s admittedly going to be a daunting task when it comes to game design, but it would be fantastic if Unbroken Studios manages to pull off a well-balanced game that could have multiplayer/competition potential.

Let’s just hope the figure out how to fix that unbalanced point system with the Golden Snitch.

Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions launches for PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC on Sept. 3.

With some fans branding Radcliffe as ‘ungrateful’ to Rowling despite her being the reason for his success, Radcliffe says that he doesn’t owe it to Rowling to not have his own opinion on the matter. “Jo, obviously Harry Potter would not have happened without her, so nothing in my life would have probably happened the way it is without that person,” Radcliffe tells The Atlantic, “But that doesn’t mean that you owe the things you truly believe to someone else for your entire life.”

For some time, fans of Rowling who share her stance have been calling for actors like Radcliffe to issue apologies for their stance against Rowling, and Rowling herself has commented that they were “celebs who cosied up to a movement intent on eroding women’s hard-won rights.” To which Radcliffe responded, “I will continue to support the rights of all LGBTQ people, and have no further comment than that.”

For now, Radcliffe has definitely moved on from the shadow of the boy wizard, and it can be argued that he’s had a flourishing career as compared to the rest of the main Potter trio. Rowling, on the other hand, seems to be stuck in her ‘Wizarding World’ and after the failure of Secrets of Dumbledore, everyone is wondering if its worth sticking around to see what she can bring into the franchise creatively.

For now, Radcliffe is rumored to be making an appearance in Deadpool & Wolverine, which is set to come out

Talking to Access Hollywood (via Entertainment Weekly), Radcliffe explains, “I think it’s very much like they’re going for a new series… There would be somebody else playing Harry. So I think it would be very weird for me to show up.”

So far, the only thing we know about the series is that they are going to be more inclusive when it comes to casting, and that they are going to be more faithful to the books compared to the films, which had to cut some fat from some pretty lengthy novels.

Despite Radcliffe’s reluctance to appear on the show, he does sound very positive about being able to pass the torch to a new generation of kids. He continues, “I’m very excited to see what other people do with it. The comparison I’ve made is to a story like Sherlock Holmes. I think the Potter series of books was always gonna be bigger than one interpretation or one franchise, so it’ll be cool to see the torch get passed on.”

Personally, I prefer just expanding the lore to go to different places, but HBO is very welcome to try a reboot. I just feel sorry for the kids that have to commit to the job for more than 7 years. Will they have to redo the Harry Potter theme parks to match the reboots as well?

The Harry Potter series reboot is yet to have a release date.

In a recent post on Twitter, Rowling responds to the activists online organizing a boycott of the upcoming series. She says:

Dreadful news, which I feel duty bound to share. Activists in my mentions are trying to organise yet another boycott of my work, this time of the Harry Potter TV show. As forewarned is forearmed, I've taken the precaution of laying in a large stock of champagne.

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) April 21, 2023

The thread is covered in JK Rowling’s supporters, who have also been taking shots at the trans activists that have been against the author. We don’t know if a boycott of the series could actually work, but Hogwarts Legacy managed to sell more than expected despite the ‘massive’ online movement to boycott the game.

Then again, I think the situation between Hogwarts Legacy and a Potter reboot could be completely different. While Legacy was a completely new property that expanded on the lore, a lot consider the Potter reboot to be a sort of final Hail Mary from a franchise that doesn’t seem to know how to grow. Rowling fumbled the bag hard with her Fantastic Beasts films, and a reboot now just seems lazy, especially with how well beloved the movies are.

We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. The reboot of the Harry Potter franchise is yet to have a release date.

Here’s the announcement for the HP series coming to the rebranded Max:

It comes with this description:

Max has ordered the first ever #HarryPotter scripted television series, a faithful adaptation of the iconic books

The series is said to be covering one book per season, and will find a new cast of characters to play the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermoine. Besides the promise that the series will attempt to be more faithful to the books, it’s also been said that the show will have a more diverse cast of characters.

Growing up on the films, news of a Harry Potter reboot to me definitely feels like a poor decision, but on the other hand, several classic stories have found themselves rebooted time and again like Sherlock Holmes. While the movies do seem pretty fresh in a lot of fans’ minds, maybe a reboot won’t be as terrible as we expect.

Though fans had managed to stick to J.K. Rowling through all the online shaming and transphobe accusations, I wonder how many will be on her side now especially since she’s attached to the show as an executive producer. While her Fantastic Beasts attempt wasn’t perfect, I definitely prefer an expansion of the world rather than a retelling of a story that a lot of fans agree has pretty much been pulled off.

No release date has been set for the Potter series.

Check it:

While the game’s marketing so far has been trying its best to showcase the gameplay and the open world, this launch trailer actually gives us a look at more things inside the castle, including secret rooms, and all kinds of teachers.

We know that it will be a while before any of the Weasleys we know will have been born, but it’s interesting to think that there’s a Weasley teaching in Hogwarts; what are the odds that she’s running Gryffindor House?

Despite the boycott on Rowling, the developers have been very clear that she had nothing to do with the development of the game. While some still don’t want to get Rowling that royalty check, there are others who are thinking about the developers who just wanted to bring them a good game.

Here’s the official description for Hogwarts Legacy:

Embark on a journey through familiar and new locations as you explore and discover magical beasts, customise your character and craft potions, master spell casting, upgrade talents and become the wizard you want to be.

Experience Hogwarts in the 1800s. Your character is a student who holds the key to an ancient secret that threatens to tear the wizarding world apart. Discover the feeling of living at Hogwarts as you make allies, battle Dark Wizards and ultimately decide the fate of the wizarding world. 

Your legacy is what you make of it. Live the Unwritten.

Hogwarts Legacy launches on Feb. 10 for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X|S. The game launches for PS4 and Xbox One on April 4, and Nintendo Switch on July 25.

Watch this:

Though Hogwarts is the main location for the game, players are also promised the ability to explore around the castle including the village of Hogsmeade as well as the Forbidden Forest. The trailer is actually rife with Easter Eggs including giant spiders, a hippogriff, and a dragon.

I guess it’s also worth mentioning that even if Hogwarts Legacy is telling a story that takes place a hundred years before Harry Potter, there are some traces in the game of familiar characters. We already know that Simon Pegg is voicing the school’s headmaster Phineas Black, but the trailer also gives us a look at the Gryffindor house ghost Nearly Headless Nick; we also get the mention of one of the professors being a Weasley, making her an ancestor of one Ronald Weasley; we don’t know much about them yet, but it’s possible we would see her around the Gryffindor common room, as the Weasleys have all been notorious for being put in that house.

So far, the game looks great, but there has been an online boycott for the game thanks to the anti-trans stance of author J.K. Rowling. While fans are debating about the ethics of it though, some are just excited to come back to the world in a different way after the stumble that was the Fantastic Beasts movie franchise.

Hogwarts Legacy launched Feb. 10 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC. The game comes to PS4 and Xbox One on April 4, and Nintendo Switch on July 25.

This comes from @wdwpro1:

https://twitter.com/wdwpro1/status/1606424616607547392

It’s worth noting that we should take this news with a grain of salt. The source did promise an update the following day, but as of now, we still have nothing.

If anything, the piece of news is sort of believable. It has been said that Zaslav was looking to bring back the character of Harry Potter, and a reboot could very much be their solution. With the last movie coming out back in 2011, I’m sure enough time has passed for fans to want to come back to the character after all these years.

On the other hand, we have been getting our Wizarding World fix with the Fantastic Beasts films (regardless of how you like them), and with the original Potter films being considered as universally beloved, rebooting the franchise could risk losing existing fans over the promise of gaining new ones.

Personally, I was fine with the spinoff route with movies just set in the world without the need for focusing on Harry and friends. The Fantastic Beasts franchise just took a major misstep when it decided to focus on legacy characters like Dumbledore and dug itself in a hole where the protagonist Newt ended up being a side character in his own films.

We don’t know what WB has in store for Harry Potter, but hopefully they find a route soon.

During a WB investor’s call (via THR), WB head David Zaslav has expressed his interest in more Harry Potter movies. Zaslav said, “We’re going to focus on franchises… We haven’t had a Superman movie in 13 years. We haven’t done a Harry Potter in 15 years. The DC movies and the Harry Potter movies provided a lot of the profits for Warner Bros. … over the past 25 years.” Zaslav also mentions author J.K. Rowling, “If we can do something with J.K. on Harry Potter going forward.”

Though I was a huge Potter fan, I think the initial idea to just make spinoff films based in the Wizarding World was the smart idea—the train just started going off the rails when they decided they should focus on the clash between Grindelwald and Dumbledore—something that was Rowling’s idea.

I think continuing Harry’s story could risk ruining it. Basically, a lot of people already don’t consider Cursed Child canon; I guess there just isn’t enough buzz since that property is a play and isn’t consumed en masse. Besides, listening to actors like Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson talk about their time on the films—it looks like they’re not interested in going back to that movie franchise world.

For now, we don’t know how WB plans to move the Wizarding World forward, but after Secrets of Dumbledore, the franchise needs a major rework.

Just in, Warner Bros Entertainment has revealed what they call the Harry Potter: Magic Caster Wand, and it allows you to ‘cast spells’ in your home. Watch this:

Connect your world, unlock the ultimate wand experience, and bring the magic of Harry Potter to your everyday life with the Harry Potter: Magic Caster Wand.

The device essentially lets you plug into your home system and have you control various things around your house with the wave of the wand. The wand actually comes with a variety of spells for you to learn, and you have to take note of the wand movement as well as the incantation to properly activate the commands.

Not only do you get to mess with the lights, but you can also play games with the wand, and go duelling with your friends who also have their own magic casters. I’ll admit, it looks like something that could be fun for a week, but I’m sure there are some Potterheads who would just love to have this smart wand and turn on lights with a flick of their wrist. Besides, who knows what other kinds of games could be on this device?

To find out more about the Magic Caster Wand, you can check the official site here.

Watch this extensive look at Howarts Legacy down here:

Become the student you’ve always wanted to be as you experience life at Hogwarts and embark on a journey through the wizarding world. Discover magical beasts, craft potions, and master spell casting as you uncover the mystery of Ancient Magic.

Next, the magical minds at Avalanche Software take you through a behind-the-scenes look at how their vision of Hogwarts was brought to life in an open-world video game.

While fans had a general idea of what to expect from the game, this new State of Play update really gives us a look at just how massive the world is. Besides the many secret rooms and dungeons of Hogwarts, you also get to explore outside the castle, from the town of Hogsmeade to other locations in the Dark Forest.

The game even has locations that are specific to the books like the Hogwarts kitchen filled with House-elves; they even go so far as to allow you to enter the prefects’ bathroom.

If anything, I could say I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with the options, but I’m sure there are some fans who would love a detailed look at the Wizarding World. We don’t know when we’re going to get the next look, but at least we know that the game is coming this year.

No specific release date has been set for Hogwarts Legacy, but the game is expected to launch sometime around the holiday season for PlayStation 4|5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Check out the Fantastic Beasts trailer down here: 

Professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) knows the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen) is moving to seize control of the wizarding world. Unable to stop him alone, he entrusts Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to lead an intrepid team of wizards, witches and one brave Muggle baker on a dangerous mission, where they encounter old and new beasts and clash with Grindelwald’s growing legion of followers. But with the stakes so high, how long can Dumbledore remain on the sidelines?

With Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) feeling like a side character in his own franchise, the trend seems to be continuing with this sequel. None of the marketing has even revealed Newt’s love interest from the first movie, Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston).

Though author J.K. Rowling wrote a series of mega hit books with Harry Potter, Crimes of Grindelwald has made it clear that writing for a book doesn’t translate to writing a screenplay. Hopefully Potter screenwriter Steve Kloves can show her a thing or two as he’s now attached to Secrets of Dumbledore.

Catch Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore when it hits theaters on April 15.