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Credit: Warner Bros.A brand-new Wizarding World era is underway–but it looks like two highly anticipated upcoming Harry Potter projects will have very close ties with the film series they’re supposedly trying to ignore in order to start anew.
We all know that there’s a Harry Potter television series heading for HBO that will recast everyone including Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger. The series will be a more “faithful adaptation” of the “Harry Potter” books by JK Rowling and will be comprised of seven seasons, each based on one of the novels.
As such, it will also serve as a reboot of the eight films.
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While the beloved film series remains as iconic as ever, it would have been pretty naïve to think that the franchise wouldn’t eventually move forward with newer iterations.
Either way, as a new adaptation with an entirely new cast of actors, the Harry Potter HBO series will take place in its own standalone timeline, thus starting a new continuity entirely unrelated to the films, seemingly with no overlap with the canon established in the beloved cinematic franchise, which includes the Fantastic Beasts spinoff series. Or so we thought.
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Last year’s open-world video game “Hogwarts Legacy” proved that there’s plenty of steam left in the Hogwarts Express–even if the game turned out to be disappointing for many fans.
Still, it has sold several millions of copies world wide to date, with rumors of a sequel being in the works having done the rounds for the past year since its release. The game takes place in the late 1800s, long before the Boy Who Lived steps foot inside the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry; however, it connection to the films has remained ambiguous at best.
Things became even more confusing when we learned that Luke Youngblood, who plays Gryffindor Quidditch commentator Lee Jordan in the film series, became the first star to return to the Harry Potter universe, voicing Ravenclaw prankster Everett Clopton in “Hogwarts Legacy” (although you could simply put this down to a fun little cameo).
But now, though many other actors, like Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy) and Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom), have expressed an interest in playing different characters in the HBO series, Youngblood is the only one who appears to be part of the new Harry Potter universe.
Recently, per Variety, Warner Bros. Games confirmed that “Hogwarts Legacy 2” is in development. But, in a surprising twist, it was also revealed that the game–and with it, the first entry–will have canonical ties of some kind with the new Harry Potter TV series.
“We have known for some time that fans are looking for more things in this world, and so we’re spending a lot of time thinking about that,” David Haddad, president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, told Variety.
“Our insights tell us that there are not huge distinctions between a younger version of a fan and an older version of a fan. They’re just deep Harry Potter fans, and we try to build authentic experiences to delight them.”
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Haddad added that the developers have been co-ordinating some of the storytelling elements in the “Hogwarts Legacy” sequel with the storylines that will play out in the HBO series. Exactly what this means is unclear, but it sounds like the video game and television series will be connected in some shape or form, which is huge news for the franchise.
But while both the upcoming game and HBO series will jointly mark the beginning of a new era for the Wizarding World (no release dates have been announced for either project), Warner Bros. previously confirmed that the films “will remain at the core of the franchise.”
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As for the Fantastic Beasts series, that’s now dead and buried–according to Newt Scamander actor Eddie Redmayne and director David Yates. However, it remains to be seen whether the Harry Potter HBO series will “adopt” the three spinoff films in the same way it appears to be taking “Hogwarts Legacy” canon under its wings.
If so, this would mean that, similarly to Luke Youngblood now seemingly spanning two continuities (though as two different characters), actors Jamie Campbell Bower, who plays Gellert Grindelwald in flashbacks in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows parts one and two and returns briefly in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, and Hebe Beardsall, who plays Albus Dumbledore‘s sister Ariana Dumbledore in Deathly Hallows — Part 2 and reprises her role in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, will also occupy two separate Harry Potter timelines.
Do you think the “Hogwarts Legacy” games and Harry Potter HBO series should be kept separate? Let us know in the comments below!