Movies: Would Harry Potter Work Better As A Streaming Series?

Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon that can be enjoyed by adults and children the same. Starting out as a young adult series of novels by J.K. Rowling they were as popular as books could get in the late 90s and early 2000s. When they became movies, their popularity soared even more. Now they have a following of hardcore fans who read or rewatch the show on a regular basis. They dive into every game, mobile or console, that gets made. They flock to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida to be a part of The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Fans waited on the edge of their seats for the Harry Potter reunion special on HBO Max.

However, the one thing about Harry Potter we can’t help but wonder did we jump too soon on the form of media when they were made? Don’t get me wrong, the movies were great. They had an excellent cast, were well directed, and mostly stayed true to the story itself. It would be hard to imagine these characters played by anyone else other than the original cast. It wouldn’t be hard to release in a day of reboots and remakes. The fan club might riot in the parking lot of the studio, but is it time this franchise got a reboot.

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While it has only been about 11 years since the wrap-up of the final installment of the movies, 20 years have passed since Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was released. While those movies and actors’ performances are still on everyone’s mind most will think it’s too soon for a reboot. But going back and reading the books, there’s so much more that could’ve been accomplished had they not had to fit the time constraints of a movie. While it’s not a knock on the movies themselves, even original director Chris Columbus agreed that large parts of the story were cut for time. After all, Harry Potter was intended for a younger audience and while they’re still 2.5 hours long they don’t fit the typical attention span of a younger audience.

Sure, by today’s standards, 3+ hour movies doesn’t seem that bad. Superhero films like The Batman and the two latest Avengers movies have pushed those marks, but even then there’s still a good chunk they’d leave out. Take the first Harry Potter movie Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, while it was a great movie in its own way, it had to barrel through a large chunk of the story to get to the parts that would get more attention, specifically speaking the relationship with his aunt and uncle. The movie did a great job of showing the divide between the two, however, because of the pace of the movie it didn’t spend as much time developing Harry as the underdog as it could’ve.

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When it’s all said and done, they made a great franchise that fans love but at the end of the day could it have worked better as a streaming series? Take into consideration the development of technology between then and now. How much better would a story of magic be with the visual effects of today? Since the original cast is loved so much, sneak them in as the teachers along the way.

Imagine watching the series unfold in season 1 with a young Harry Potter struggling to adapt to his horrible living situation and discovering the strange coincidences that keep happening around him. From the books alone, people on the outside of Harry’s life sure do an awful lot about him as well, enough that they have to be keeping tabs. Why not have a series where someone is watching him from afar as he discovers he’s not like everyone else. Carry the story through the season until he finds out he’s a wizard and pick up in season two on his journey to Hogwarts. If season 1 is the building blocks and they follow each book per season, they’d have an 8 season arc to develop what some of the movies had missed.

Let’s not sell the movie franchise down the river, it did remarkable things. However, as far as Harry Potter is concerned, the studio jumped at the chance to make movies at the height of the popularity and could’ve done so much more.