Warner Brothers Studios has announced a 7 season “Harry Potter” series.

By Gianna Liantonio

Photo credit: comingsoon.net | Why is this series being produced 12 years later, when there is nothing else to truly be explored?

On April 4, Warner Brothers Studios confirmed that a “Harry Potter” reboot is in the works. 

They plan to make it a 7 season series with each book being one season. The question is: why?

The final movie in the original film adaptation, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two”, came out on July 15, 2011. 

Since then, we have gotten the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” series, which takes place before Harry Potter, during the time of Grindelwald in the 1920s. There have been three films in the “Fantastic Beasts” series with little news on whether there will be more, given the last movie didn’t do as well as the studio wanted. 

“Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” released on July 31, 2016. It was written as a screenplay by Jack Thorne, John Tiffany and J.K. Rowling. It also got produced on Broadway and is still running currently. 

There was actually a rumor that they were going to make this a movie, but there has been no news on whether they will or not. 

Harry Potter fans everywhere never want to see this beloved franchise end for good, but no one wants them to just redo everything. This new series will not be the same without the original cast members—particularly Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter along with the rest of the Golden Trio, Hermione and Ron, played by Emma Watson and Rupert Grint respectively. 

J.K. Rowling will be part of the production. However, she says she won’t take the role of a showrunner; rather, she will work as a producer and dictate how she wants the scenes to play out. 

“By contrast there are only seven Harry Potter books to draw from. Mostly everything Ron Weasley did in the books, for instance, has been covered in the original films,” wrote Douglas Laman for Collider. “There are not a lot of rich unadapted storylines for this new TV show to tackle.”

Numerous fans for years have been saying they want prequels—ones that delve into different parts of the books that didn’t get enough attention. 

A major one is the marauders. We briefly hear stories of them throughout the books, starting with “Prisoner of Azkaban”, where Harry meets his godfather Sirius Black and new professor Remus Lupin, who both happened to be Harry’s father’s best friends when they went to Hogwarts.

Another possible prequel could focus on the founders of Hogwarts; we could discover how they came together to form Hogwarts and what the school was like in its earliest years. There is also the possibility of exploring Voldemort’s past; though he is the villain and mostly hated by all, his origin story would be very compelling. 

Another issue that this reboot raises is it will be a completely new cast and it wouldn’t feel the same. It would lose the original magic that the movies had. 

Even though there are definitely scenes in the books that I, as well as many other fans, wanted to see onscreen, I believe this reboot won’t satisfy the need to see those scenes acted out. 

The movies have been out long enough, to the point where fans are fine with the originals and some even prefer them. No one could have made “Harry Potter” what it was without the cast and directors. 

There are movie franchises, such as “Star Wars”, that can delve into new storylines and characters’ backstories without the fear of repetition. “Harry Potter” truthfully doesn’t have a lot to go into and its story would only be stretched out. 

Though a few of the movies did cut some characters and plot lines out, the series was overall very well done and portrayed the story with care. There is nothing to be fixed or redone. 

I personally love both the “Harry Potter” books and the movies, but I don’t think this series should be made. It is unnecessary, and may strip this iconic world of its overall magic and wonder.