"Original Harry Potter Director Praises HBO Reboot as 'Spectacular'"

Original Harry Potter director Chris Columbus has praised the upcoming HBO reboot series as a "spectacular idea," highlighting its potential to more faithfully recreate the books. In a conversation with People, Columbus discussed the limitations he faced due to the shorter runtimes of the films he directed, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. He emphasized that despite their efforts to include as much from the books as possible, the film format inherently restricted what could be covered.

"I think it's a spectacular idea because there’s a certain restriction when you’re making a film," Columbus explained. "Our film was two hours and 40 minutes, and the second one was almost as long. The fact that they have the leisure of multiple episodes for each book, I think that's fantastic. You can get all the stuff in the series that we didn't have an opportunity to do... All these great scenes that we just couldn't put in the films."

The Harry Potter series, announced in April 2023, aims to be a "faithful adaptation" of J.K. Rowling's novels, offering a more in-depth exploration than the two-hour film format allows. The project is being helmed by Succession producers Francesca Gardiner and Mark Mylod, with Mylod also having contributed to Game of Thrones.

Currently, HBO is on the hunt for actors to portray the iconic trio of Harry, Hermione, and Ron. As for the role of Dumbledore, original Sirius Black actor Gary Oldman humorously remarked that he might be the right age to take on the part of the Hogwarts headmaster, reflecting on his debut in The Prisoner of Azkaban 20 years ago. Meanwhile, actor and playwright Mark Rylance is reportedly at the top of HBO's casting wishlist for Dumbledore, maintaining the focus on British actors, which aligns with the involvement of the series' controversial original author, J.K. Rowling, in the casting process.

Filming for the Harry Potter TV series is set to commence in spring 2025, with HBO aiming for a release in 2026.