10 Potential Wizarding World Tales For HBO Max's Upcoming Harry Potter Series
The ever-evolving Harry Potter franchise is still going strong thanks to countless book releases, spinoff films, musicals, and theme park attractions, but the major area that the series has yet to cast a spell on is television. There have been rumors and discussion of a Harry Potter series making its way to television for years, but no spell has ever materialized this wish... until now. While a series itself won't be set to hit the airwaves for the next few years, it does not mean that fans cannot speculate on what HBO and Warner Bros. may have in store for Potter fans.
Here are the 10 potential wizarding world tales for HBO Max's upcoming Harry Potter series:
10. The Aurors
Deployed by the contentious wizarding government known as The Ministry of Magic, The Ministry's self-appointed Aurors are responsible for the capture and detainment of wizards and witches specializing in dark magic, throughout London. Following the climactic battle with the series big bad Lord Voldemort, Harry Potter and his best friend Ron Weasly even become successful Aurors in the future of the timeline. As they are the premier form of law enforcement, The Aurors provides the franchisee with an opportunity to delve into a completely new and fresh direction.
An Aurors show would be less high school drama and more classic cop procedural in the vein of The Shield or Hill Street Blues. While a TV series would not have to be beholden to Harry or ancillary characters, having established Aurors such as Mad-Eye Moody or Nymphadora Tonks make cameo appearances would help ease viewers into an untapped television property.
9. Department For The Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
The Harry Potter series is not only home to magical beings but equally dangerous magical creatures which reside right alongside the world's wizards and witches. There's even an entire subsection within The Ministry of Magic primarily owed to the supervision and management of magical creatures scattered throughout the Wizarding World of Harry Potter from house-elves, dragons, werewolves, trolls, goblins, and centaurs just to name a select few. The Department consists of three separate creature divisions; Being, Beast, and Spirit.
Harry Potter spinoff series Fantastic Beasts have dabbled in magical creatures quite significantly, with its lead protagonist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) acting as a Mazoologist on creatures. With the Fantastic Beasts series in active progress, Warner Bros. may want to look for another source of expansion before basing yet another Potter series or spinoff on magical creatures entirely.
8. Welcome to Azkaban
The Wizarding World's most notorious holding facility, Azkaban, was merely saved to a myriad of mentions in the Harry Potter novels and could be briefly glimpsed from its exterior in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007). A host of notable Harry Potter characters have been sent to Azkaban throughout the years from allies Sirius Black and Hagrid to villains Bellatrix Lestrange and Lucius Malfoy. Yet, what lies within this frightening complex is a complete mystery.
The key to unraveling Azkaban may lie in Emmy nominated HBO series OZ, which covers the daily activities of the inmates within New York's fictional Oswald State Correctional Facility. Without the show's undercurrent of sex and gore, an OZ-style series based within Azkaban can truly give substance to the inmates as well as the prison itself, albeit with life-draining demons acting as the wardens.
7. The Exploits of The Daily Prophet
A duplicitous yet successful newspaper, The Daily Prophet tabloid newspaper is in many ways the TMZ of the Wizarding World. If a Daily Prophet series does come to be realized on HBO Max, the natural headliner would be the paper's main gossip correspondent/reporter, Rita Skeeter.
While not attaining the role of a dark witch, Skeeter proves to be a common annoyance for Harry and other wizards that she happens to cross paths with. Whether the show occupies the past or present, Rita is familiar with being sent to interview prestige wizards and witches around the globe, often coming to blows with danger herself in the pursuit of a good headliner. Aiding Rita in her journalistic endeavors for the Prophet is her ability to transform into the Animagus form of a beetle in order to gain private information on scoops.
6. Quidditch Through the Ages
A historical book within the Harry Potter universe, Quidditch Through the Ages examines the evolution of the high-flying broomstick competition. Considered to be the general equivalent to Football within the Wizarding World, Quidditch is an international sport that rewards its players on either the scoring of points or a blow to the head from an enormous leather ball. The main objective of Quidditch involves the acquisition of the quick and nimble Golden Snitch.
Though never glimpsed enough, Hogwarts' own Quidditch games were often the highlight and a palette cleanser of sorts in the Harry Potter films, taking a break from the war at hand. The fourth Harry Potter installment The Goblet of Fire even featured the annual Quidditch World Cup, which takes place in a different region every few years. Though Quidditch is not a factor in the war with Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters, that does not exclude Harry's world of sports from being every bit as dangerous and stressful as the greater adventure.
5. The Eleven Wizarding Schools
If there's one thing that the Wizarding World has plenty of, it's schools. Hogwarts may be the most recognized educational institution for magic in the Harry Potter lore, but it's merely one in a slate of eleven and possibly more. Alongside Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry is Europe's Durmstrang Institute, the French-based Beuxbatons Academy of Magic, Africa's Uagadou School of Magic, and several others accepting adolescent witches and wizards.
As Hogwarts served as the main stomping grounds for Harry and his friends, much of the activities pertaining to the main series naturally could not stray far from the designated school. However, now that the opportunity exists for a new protagonist or locale, there is an ample opportunity to finally showcase any one of the rival schools, which allows for another level of magical world-building.
4. Adventures of The Mauraders
A mischievous grouping kickstarted by wizard James Potter alongside close friends Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew during their stay at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, The Mauraders are a quartet with a knack for disobedience and reckless abandon. Taking the distinctive nicknames of Padfoot, Wormtail, Moony, and Prongs, each Maurader is capable of transforming into an individual Animagus creature. Designing a visual layout of Hogwarts in its near entirety through their mapping affectionately titled "The Mauraders Map", the group is given safe and easy access through several private areas within Hogwarts Castle.
The Mauraders series can act as a gateway for fans to become acclimated with James and other familiar characters in not only a time before Harry's birth but at a stage of their lives where they may not have been burdened with death and conflict but rather having fun throughout Hogwarts. Though their friendship would reach a tragic turn into adulthood, the early bond between Prongs, Padfoot, Wormtail, and Moony is one that deserves to be shown in full on-screen.
3. Voldemort's Initial Rise to Power
Fans have seen Tom Riddle's meeting with Dumbeldore as a child in conjunction with his days as an ambitious student attending Hogwarts, but what's missing are Riddle's formative days as Lord Voldemort... creating his infamous legacy. While Voldemort is a feared and recognized figure by the time of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the dark wizard's time prior to his defeat by an infant Harry is a blur of events. What a series can do is reintroduce Voldemort's dark magical objects known as the Horcruxes, which ultimately become the main MacGuffin for both Harry and Riddle in the latter half of the series.
Not only did the Horcruxes grant Voldemort immortality and power but warped Tom's appearance from an average human to a frightening figure resembling a snake. Given that traditional Voldemort actor Ralph Fiennes is nearing 60, a new actor may be needed for a prequel show based on the iconic villain, which would not necessarily detract from the story, given that Voldemort's series would likely entail a slightly earlier period in Riddle's wizarding career.
2. Hogwarts Founders
While Albus Dumbeldore may have represented Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry for several generations of students, Dumbeldore was far from the founding father of Hogwarts. Both the novels and films have barely showcased the four original Hogwarts founders which consist of Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw, each laying the groundwork for the respective student housing. Though each founder had a certain aura of complexity to their personality, the most wicked of the powerful ensemble was Salazar Slytherin.
Slytherin not only shared differing beliefs in Hogwarts attendees as opposed to his fellow witches and wizards but gave birth to another major location in Harry Potter lore known as the Chamber of Secrets (located underneath the school itself). A "Founders" series, set within the earliest days of Hogwarts, can be a tragic Shakespearan falling out between close friends in the journey to pave what will become a legendary educational facility in the following decades.
1. The Order of the Phoenix
A private function founded in the 1970s, The Order of the Phoenix was an underground organization given prominence during the First Wizarding War by Hogwarts' most revered headmaster Albus Dumbeldore alongside respected wizards Minerva McGonagall, Alastor Moody, and Kingsley Shacklebot to combat against the dark forces of rising threat Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters.
The fifth novel in the Harry Potter series, The Order of the Phoenix, introduced the organization to a modern prominence upon Voldemort's modern resurgence. While Harry was appropriately not a member in the Order's early form, Harry's late parents Lily and James Potter were vital components of the group as well as their friends Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin.
A full-length series centered on the Order of the Phoenix would do well to highlight underappreciated or completely overlooked members such as Edgar Bones, Aberforth Dumbeldore, Dorcas Meadows, and Frank & Alice Longbottom. If Warner Bros. decides to focus the action on a vastly familiar group of Harry Potter characters for their forthcoming series, it may be the safe choice to go with the Wizarding World's first bout with Lord Voldemort, which awarded him the title of "He Who Must Not Be Named".
While Harry's journey may be over, the wizarding world of characters and possibilities for a full-length series to explore in detail is ever-present. It's titled "The Wizarding World" for a reason after all. At this point, Harry Potter is such an established brand with fans that they will likely flock to the screens for any show to make sure that the property receives the attention that it deserves.