Following the merger, HBO Max has already announced its biggest bets for the foreseeable future. Doubtless, Harry Potter couldn’t get out of this line of upcoming productions. As the largest Warner Bros. the streaming company announced a streaming show with a season for each book of the series. In a conservative move, they decided the Harry Potter series instead of expanding the universe.
Needless to say, these kinds of choices are usually supported by a lot of commercial information. Of course, this doesn’t mean that a reboot about the boy who lived will be an instant hit, but the risks of failure are smaller knowing how much popularity the Harry Potter story has among fans. In addition, the fluff Fantastic beasts franchise paralyzed the Wizarding World for a while without any major expansions to the universe.
On the verge of franchise fatigue, there are many reasons for the Harry Potter series that cannot go beyond the character’s arc.
The failed attempt at expansion
Of course, the controversies around Harry Potter have no shortage of influence on enlargement. The spin-off’s first entry, Fantastic beasts and where to find them made a pretty solid debut in terms of box office, grossing big enough to suggest the series would be five installments.
Yet Johnny Depp’s involvement soon came into question when the actor got into a legal battle with his ex-wife over allegations of domestic violence. The public backlash resulted in the studios dropping Deep as Gellert Grindelwald, the villain of the franchise, and recasting him with Mads Mikkelsen.
Another cast-related controversy related to the actor Ezra Miller. Miller played Credence Barebone/Aurelius Dumbledore and had a series of incidents in Hawaii that resulted in his arrest. Both Depp and Miller’s situations took place sometime between the release of the second and third episodes.
However, the most significant controversy revolved around JK Rowling, the author of the books. The writer of the series was in the eye of the storm for her views on transgender rights. Part of her audience decided to boycott her products, another blow to an already lackluster spin-off of Harry Potter.
In spite of everything, the problem would be simplified by attributing the failure to the polemic surrounding the franchise. The story of Fantastic beasts takes place long before the Harry Potter storyline. The connections between the two exist, but are more noticeable to the hardcore fans. In addition, planning the development of Newt Scamander’s arc in five entries was a blank check that ultimately failed.
The third movie, The Crimes of Grindelwaldwhich will be the series finale until further notice is clearly the effect of budget cuts due to controversy and lack of success and visibly takes its toll on the story, with plot lines interrupted abruptly.
Last but not least, JK Rowling remains the main creator of the Wizarding World. Controversy aside, while she’s had some other people collaborate on some films, centralized creation isn’t always going to benefit expanded universes. For example, Star Wars and the MCU have benefited, with hiccups, from multiple writers or directors taking the franchise to new horizons.
It’s not a matter of creativity or ability as Rowling has proven to be resourceful to spawn an entire magical world. Yet, likewise, Under the spell of the Ring still trying to go through the same expansion, with too much content trying to stick too much to the source material created by peerless author JRR Tolkien.
The debate over the message of Harry Potter
There is a message related issue that may be affecting Harry Potter‘s extension. The Wizarding World, like other fictional worlds in the industry, has ideas and values that give the story a meaningful impact. But, as learned from the popular podcast The Witch Trials of JK Rowlingthe audio series highlights how young and not-so-young readers perceive the Harry Potter books as a message about friendship, coping with being different, and other messages that allow for multiple interpretations.
In fact, amidst the controversy, Rowling herself has questioned some of the fans’ ideas about her stories, such as who the dementors are and their significance in the series.
The Harry Potter books had a powerful message and connections to the real world. Fantastic beasts, on the other hand, went a step further, not only trying more metaphors about the world, but also giving it a historical feel. The story initially revolved around the time between the two world wars.
In the first two films, Grindelwald plays a warlike villain who claims the superiority of wizards over muggles. That storyline barely made its way into the third movie, making the Fantastic beasts franchise a less interpretable spin-off, steering away from what made Harry Potter popular in the first place. And while there are similar ideas between the two, Fantastic beasts isn’t bold enough to offer a new concept (mostly due to budget cuts) and not close enough to Harry Potter as more conservative fandom might appreciate.
Ultimately, a franchise reboot is a less risky move for the studios, but not the best when it comes to expanding the Wizarding World. The show has a high chance of success due to fans’ love of the original story, but each remake brings forth the usual voices that the original films lack and criticize the new material. Poor results would show signs of franchise fatigue, interrupting new content for the foreseeable future. Time will tell if the Wizarding World gets a second chance to expand or if the boy who lived needs some time off.