HBO’s much-anticipated Harry Potter television series is slowly gaining steam, like the Hogwarts Express pulling out of Platform 9 3/4.
The newest development is that its creative team has been named, and their background is more family disfunction than magical spells. Francesca Gardiner, a writer on HBO shows Succession and His Dark Materials, will serve as showrunner and executive producer while Emmy-winning director Mark Mylod will be director and executive producer.
Known for directing episodes of Succession and Game of Thrones, HBO has clearly been mining from their own talent pool. It’s a big vote of confidence for the two tasked with creating a fresh new adaptation of the seven Harry Potter novels. Sure, it was a miracle they created eight wildly successful films, why not try and find lightning in a bottle again?
Its appeal is easy to see, the children who were obsessed with Harry Potter are now adults obsessed with Harry Potter. Two-to-three hour films were never enough time to delve into the nuances of the story, leaving fan-favorite side quests and fringe characters on the cutting room floor.
Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod now face a challenge as vast as defeating Voldemort, with HBO tentatively setting a 2026 release date and aiming to cover one book per season.
