I have such hate for Rowling, but this is probably going to do fabulously for HBO (we plan to cancel HBO when it lands and tell them why, but they really don’t give a shit).
Two thoughts on viewing it:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone | Official Teaser | HBO Max
i think it looks brilliant. from the trailer it looks like they are taking a line or two from the book and bringing it forward. the clips of harry’s life with the dursleys, the haircut, dudley using him as a punching bag, how fast he is, all good.
as for rowling, i trust the story, not the story teller.
How is it different than the movies?
It’ll actually include Peeves, and the writing for Hermione and Ginny will hopefully not be dreadful.
It’s a totally different type of adaptation. Imagine if season 1 of Game of Thrones, which corresponds to the first book, was an hour and a half long movie instead of a nine and a half hour series.
Is this aimed at kids, like a new generation of Harry Potter fans? Or is it HBO’d up to make it appeal to adults who liked the movies as kids?
Each book is an entire series and one series a year?
Edit: I’m not at all familiar with GoT
Yes, this is the setup. They’ve said they’re adapting the books as directly as possible.
That is quite a commitment to all involved. Seven years.
I’m not a fan of fantasy generally but at some point after the third book came out, my then wife’s friend lent the books to her and I read them and enjoyed them enough to buy them as they came out. By the time the last couple came out I was dating a woman with a teenager son and I’d buy them and give the book to him when I was done.
Are they actually releasing a season per year? because shows with little kids and 2-3 year breaks between seasons get silly real quick. ETA not that I have any plans to watch, already get forced into interacting with Harry Potter stuff at work and that is all the exposure I need.
Yes, each book will have a full season of the show dedicated to it. That’s how Game of Thrones was, before they ran out of books. Harry Potter won’t have that issue.
The early (and imo best) seasons of GoT were very faithful to the book, often recreating scenes line by line. They’d shuffle scenes around to make them flow better in a visual medium, but the scenes themselves were just the book brought to life.
I don’t know if Harry Potter would be my go-to of a book series that needs that kind of treatment, but I’m excited to see what they do with it.
Apparently there is the requisite fan scandal over the change in race of a major character. Snape is now black. How subtle. The actor is getting death threats. I’m shocked.
Except the money goes to the story teller, and the story teller puts it towards marginalizing people who are transgender.
I’m a retired children’s librarian, so I’ve known about HP from the beginning. I was never a fan. Rowlings comments are personal to me, as I have a trans daughter who was a big fan of the series. I see the comments as a slap in the face to scores of trans young people who were big fans of her work. Forgive me if this is derailing the thread. Back to the topic at hand, I wonder how many people will do what the OP is planning to do. I agree that the folks who own HBO won’t care, but it’s likely to be a not insignificant number.
Sometimes it does matter though. Part of Snape’s backstory is that he was SEVERELY bullied by Harry’s dad and the rest of the Marauders, all of whom are white. Making him black does significantly change that whole dynamic.
I saw a video that outlined how really awful the switch reads…. Harry’s dad will now come off even worse now, Harry is going to seem pretttttty racist for his ill-feelings and accusations against Snape. Snape’s “obsession” with Lily is now definitely coded a different way. It’s bad all around.
Also, to speak to the author…she’s not just someone with bad takes…she’s a rich privlieged woman using her wealth and privliege to actively harm a group who is under active attack. So….. I hope this show crashes and burns.
And the reason Lily cuts him out of her life is that HE calls HER a racial slur.
… until “they” decide to throw in massive changes.