'Harry Potter' Franchise End Announced, Warner Bros. Discusses "Major Failure"

The Harry Potter franchise has been one of the most popular IPs to ever come to fruition.

The film series and book series have developed a massive fandom, which shattered box office numbers of the time whenever a new film dropped. We have seen Harry Potter-themed experiences tour the world, theme parks such as Universal Orlando Resort develop the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, clothing apparel blow up with licensing deals with the franchise, and so much more. Now, we have seen this expansion travel worldwide, with multiple lands from Hogsmeade, to Diagon Alley and, soon, The Ministry of Magic at Epic Universe, the newest theme park in the Universal Orlando Resort expansion.

Unfortunately, the franchise does have a sort of hex on it due to the creator of the series and originator of all things Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling has time and time again shared her beliefs which dispute transgender rights, which has left many feeling that they need to part ways with their love for the story. Although the characters themselves never share this belief, Rowling is quite vocal in hers.

That being said, the actors associated with the series have done their best to part ways with Rowling. Not too long ago, Daniel Radcliffe, who played the titular role, hosted a round table for trans youth. Emma Watson, who played Hermione, spoke about equality at the United Nations. Rupert Grint, who played Ron Weasley, affirmed his support of the transgender community.

We also saw Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Rupert Grint (Ron), and Emma Watson (Hermione) talking in the Gryffindor common room during the Harry Potter Reunion special on HBO Max.

There was also many more actors from the Harry Potter cast, including fan favorites Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy), plus Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort), Gary Oldman (Sirius Black), Imelda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge), James and Oliver Phelps (Fred and George Weasley), Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood).

Controversy surrounding the author came to a head when fans boycotted the open-world video game Hogwarts Legacy (2023) long before it eventually hit shelves earlier this year. The game was even banned from one of the world’s largest gaming forums.

While the game isn’t necessarily considered canon with any of the Harry Potter books or films, it still acts as a loose prequel, taking place in the late 1800s, 80 years before the Harry Potter era, much like the Fantastic Beasts series. The game still was such a success that a sequel is now in the works.

Hogwarts Legacy serves as a loose prequel to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 (2010), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 (2011), as well as the three Fantastic Beasts films.

As we have shared in great detail, “Along with Simon Pegg (Phineas Nigellus Black) and Luke Youngblood (Everett Clopton), other Hogwarts Legacy actors are Sebastian Croft and Amelia Gething (the main character/Fifth Year student), Lesley Nicol (Deputy Head Professor Matilda Weasley), Kandace Caine (Divination Professor Onai), Sohm Kapila (Astronomy Professor Satyavati Shah), Asif Ali (Ravenclaw student Mahendra Pehlwaan), and Jason Anthony (Nearly Headless Nick and the Sorting Hat).”

The game takes the player through their year at Hogwarts, where they will have to save the school from an evil that predates Voldemort.

Considering the gameplay of Hogwarts Legacy proved to be much more popular than the Fantastic Beasts series (which also fired Johnny Depp during his abuse trial against ex-wife Amber Heard), we could potentially see the game storyline taking over.

Recently, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zazlav spoke out on the Harry Potter franchise, speaking on its strengths and weaknesses.

Screenrant noted, “After the failure of Fantastic Beasts, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zazlav is speaking out about the viability of the Harry Potter franchise. Over the course of eight movies, the Harry Potter franchise brought in $7.7 billion at the box office alone. Capitalizing on the popularity of J.K. Rowling’s books, these movies created a new generation of fans. The Fantastic Beasts franchise, meanwhile, proved to be relatively listless and brought in a comparatively low $1.865 billion across its three movies while garnering mostly mixed reviews.”

It seems that Zazlav believes ending the franchise was a mistake, as it did not allow for the original story, and the real bread-winner to continue to grow. Rather, the series was stifled with failing storylines taking place in the same universe. The CEO said:

One of the other real strengths of Warner Bros. is we talk about the great IP that Warner Bros. owns. But, for us, the challenge is that our content, our great IP — ‘Harry Potter’, DC, ‘Lord of the Rings’ — that content has been underused. We haven’t done anything with ‘Harry Potter’ for more than a decade. We haven’t done anything with ‘Lord of the Rings. We think there’s a lot of shareholder value in attaching a 10-year DC — a real plan around DC, bringing ‘Harry Potter’ back to HBO for 10 consecutive years, doing multiple movies of ‘Lord of the Rings’… When you put those franchises in, it’s the best performing studio in the world. We need to deploy our best capital, and we need to do it with the best creative people in the world.

The demise of the franchise begins with the first post-Deathly Hallows movie project was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film earned over $800 million on a budget of only $175 million. That impressive result, however, came to an end with its sequel, The Crimes of Grindelwald, which earned $648 million on a $200 million budget. The third and possibly final movie, The Secrets of Dumbledore released in 2022 and brought in just $400 million with the same budget. With very little hype, and even the CEO banking on the HBO series which returns to the original story of Harry Potter to save the franchise, it seems that the Fantastic Beasts story may be at its end.

Related: Warner Bros. Kicks ‘Harry Potter’ to the Curb, ‘Barbie’ Take Down Begins

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (2016), the multi-award-winning, two-part West End stage production has been another that has appeared around the world to massive success. Why? It still revolves in the timeline in which Harry Potter is still alive. The wizard is in the production, but as an adult. Fans of the series are able to still feel the nostalgia and recognize the characters they love, while expanding on the storyline.

It seems that entire spin-offs are only proving to be successful in gameplay at the moment, where the user can actually place themselves into Hogwarts, making it less of a need to have Harry Potter as they get to essentially become their own version of the title character.

Do you think that the Harry Potter franchise is in need of saving?