#hp tv

[toorumlk]

Hey! Do you think there’s any chance they might not make Romione canon in the upcoming HBO series because of the popularity of other pairings and JKR’s somewhat recent statements concerning the ship?

fair warning this is gonna be a long post!

you know anon, i’m not gonna deny that the possibility of romione not being canon in the hbo series doesn’t keep me up at night HOWEVER COMMA-

I believe romione will be safe because i’m placing a lot, if not all, of my faith in the upcoming hbo series being repeatedly described as a "faithful" adaptation of the 7 novels. which we can deduce to mean romione friends to lovers slow burn endgame and all that good stuff (maybe i'll talk about the potential of book romione and the serial tv medium some other time)

and sure, it can all be marketing/pandering/etc. but i find it so hard to feel cynical about hbo because i love LOVE their shows and i'm of the belief that they know how to tell a good ass story (and romione happens to be a good ass romance subplot). i also have such positive feelings about the showrunner Frances Gardiner (consulting prod on succession and also has killing eve under her belt) who JKR chose herself and one of the exec producers of the show who's set to direct of a bunch of episodes Mark Mylod (succession, the menu, tlou, got)!!!! and if you know me at all you'll know that succession is one of the main pillars of my personality and i fucking love that show so bad I would follow anyone who was part of the making of that show off a cliff if they asked me to. and Mark Mylod is a fantastic fucking episodic director who's directed and produced some of the best episodes of television ever, so i know he knows how to tell a good story. and though i'm a lot less familiar with Gardiners' work, she is a female creative who has some of my personal favourite episodes listed in her imdb (chiantishire, living+, tailgate party) who's pitch of the show made joanne give her the job so.... and y'all know im a canon bootlicker and love the books so all i'll say is.. real recognizes real.

so knowing the creative team behind hp series had a direct hand in making my favourite show of all time gets me so excited and giddy!!!!

but here's where my personal theories and speculations start: I really think with this hbo series, JKR is on a mission is create something wholly and newly hers. she was barely involved creatively in the production of the movies until DH pt. 1 and 2 and the movies have almost become an entity of its own that's drifted so far away from her. of course i realize me even just talking sympathetically about JKR is deeply touchy and might piss some people off but as a fellow creative, i feel for her man!! when i think of the best books in the series in my opinion that are filled with the best bits of world building and political commentary, what i find is that GoF was handed to a director who didn't even read the book, OotP was the shortest movie in the franchise despite being the longest book and how it entirely missed the Quibbler plot and all of harry's rage, or HBP that was filled to the brim with *chefs kiss* tom/voldemort lore which was done a complete disservice in the grey and brown sludgy mess that is the HBP movie.

and knowing that JKR now has a strained relationship or had a falling out with most of the top dogs involved in the films like Kloves and Yates (hallelujah what who said that) and Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe means this show has the chance to be a behemoth that’s entirely joanne’s, like the books are. it’ll be free of Kloves' Hermione and harmony (harry x hermione) favouritism or Watson's take on Hermione's character that makes my ass itch or Yate’s complete inability to direct his actors and make non-action scenes have heart, soul and heft. but i also can’t not address the elephant in the room: this section of the discussion is filled with every shade of grey possible because what led to the falling outs was that they all vehemently disagreed with JKR's anti-trans views and good on them they absolutely should! but like.............. i hated kloves' writing and his butchering of ron's character, i think yates is a static and boring director and im not a fan of emma's acting so like... a win is a win? NO IT'S NOT. but IT IS. BUT IT'S SO NOT. but do you see what i'm getting at???

the point i'm trying to make is that joanne is not the same person she was when she was first writing the books or when the movies were being made. I think she's a lot more ruthless and cutthroat now and while i disagree with her methods and condemn her transphobia.... i think this newfound hardness to her will lend itself to making the hbo series the best HP adaptation it can be, I'M SORRY it's absolutely fucked and i acknowledge and abhor her gender critical politics as a queer woman but im also an artist who just wants good, high quality stories to be told 😔😩

and as for the other popular ships and JKR's somewhat recent comments about romione:

I think its safe to say that joanne dgaf about this fandom and what's popular in it anymore LMFAOOOO 😭😭😭 i genuinely respect that she's always stood ten toes down about how draco's not some antihero, bad boy love interest and at best is a cautionary tale on prejudiced bullies, so I don't think that's changing anytime soon. especially considering that the dramione cottage industry that its fans have made is more or less a reactionary "fuck you" to joanne and canon which they do by writing fanfic about crimes against women and making merch and binding physical copies of said fanfics (really showing it to the big baddie transphobic DV survivor by *checks notes* auctioning hermione off as a sex slave) so I doubt she'd ever consider other ship's popularity seriously. as for the possibility of harry and hermione becoming endgame um..... if the show plans to faithfully adapt the books then we'd get harry and hermione’s quintessential sibling dynamic plus we’re already free from Kloves (also i have faith in francesca and mark knowing that harmony are just plain BORING) so i think the chances, again, are low. and if joanne really wants to stick it to her old colleagues, she can go down the route of pushing romione that much harder (and she really wouldn’t have to do much, it’s all in the books already) 😭

as for the comments on romione that she’s made in recent years, i think a lot of it’s been blown out of proportion or have gone through a terrible game of telephone. what she said (paraphrasing here) about ‘wishing she’d handled ron/hermione differently because a lot of what went into them was a wish fulfillment fantasy’ has turned into ‘jk rowling regrets making romione endgame???!!’ which is just *takes a drag from a cigarette* just another tuesday around here. i also would link to two meta posts by @saintsenara on the topic of endgame romione which i wholeheartedly agree with it

all i have to say is that going into making this show i hope joanne remembers that she based ron’s character off of a person in her life she liked when she was younger and who is still a good friend of hers now 😭😔

you guys probably know i’m in animation school which is basically film school in a different font. so i’m quite literally training to one day work in the story department on projects and work alongside writers, directors and producers, so this stuff means a lot to me! she and the creative team behind this upcoming show have the chance to make something really special and i’m finding it hard not to root for them!!!!!

[books-n-cleverness]

Sign the petition - No, HBO: Don’t Platform Transphobia!

I spent years in the Harry Potter fandom. Those books brought me comfort, joy, and friends from around the world. I spent countless hours reading, watching the films, attending the cons, and creating art and community online and off. My life wouldn’t be the same without Harry Potter. For all those reasons, I wish I could be excited about the @hbomax TV show - but I can’t.

We do not want this show. JKR’s anti-trans rhetoric is helping fuel a movement that is getting trans people harassed, alienated, and killed. Creating a Harry Potter TV now adds legitimacy and support to her hateful, harmful, wrong beliefs.

We will not watch this show. Fans have written an open letter to HBO telling them to cancel the show. I hope you’ll read it, and join me in signing to say HBO, No: Don’t Platform Transphobia! 

[joannerowling]

Be honest: how well do you think the Harry Potter TV show will do?

I see no reason for it not to do well. We've already been shown repeatedly that the "boycott" against JKR counts for peanuts. The only recent disappointment on the HP front was the Fantastic Beasts movies, and those had things going against them that the HP show won't - executive meddling, the fact that we had no books to first get attached to, David Yates, the fact that it's fundamentally a story which focuses on adult characters instead of children, etc.

Based on the recent casting announcements and previous declarations by WB's CEO, i'm assuming we'll get a winter release like Percy Jackson had, probably around December 2026. That means exactly 25 years after the release of the first movie, so a full generation later. I've seen people online say "it's too soon", but the sort of people who have time to complain about tv shows online are childless, and here the target is millenial parents and their kids. Besides, the movies have their charm but the first ones desperately need a CGI redo, and the later ones suffer from bad acting and not enough screen time to fit the plot.

Also, with HBO (sorry, "MAX") at the helm, the risk of it being catastrophically bad is pretty low.

[teddyniffler]

Me: I want a book accurate Harry Potter TV show, where everything in the show matches the books perfectly. Nothing new has been added in unless it compliments or improves the canon book storyline more. I think we can all agree that too much was changed or altered in the movies, to the extent some movies, like The Half Blood Prince were very unrecognisable. So the TV show should not change anything, but should only set out to improve only.

Also me: I want Marvolo Gaunt to be beautiful and young. He is the Fanon Marvolo, not old man inbred Marvolo, he will have the messy dark hair and light brown eyes he has in fanart. He's no more than 40 years old, with a 20/30 something playing him and he is the definition of a tall, dark haired, handsome stranger. He is where Tom Riddle got his good looks from. Marvolo is the prime pedigree of Wizard Kind. You just look at him, and he radiates power and beauty. Fandom daddy. The Gaunts are also mentioned in every season, for no reason at all. Special Gaunt reference found in the Chamber of Secrets. Ominis Gaunt is mentioned a lot too, so is Sebastian. There's Gaunts everywhere, not just Merope and Morfin, its the whole family now. They are all unearthly beautiful and can do wandless magic. They are also among the fighters in the Battle of Hogwarts, at the end they redeem themselves by saving the day, rejoining the Wizarding World and Harry acknowledges them as his cousins.

[6kuros]

happy 3rd bday to half life funny u have been very important to my art journey

[ecstarry]

imagine reg and james entering love is blind as a joke but actually falling in love in the pods and being the only couple that actually says yes at the altar

[joannerowling]

Seriously though it's not even being mean to be happy about this, the man's been involved since 2006, enough is enough

"Do you know what? Honestly, I could not, in any conceivable way, get involved," Yates confirmed to ComicBook.com when asked about getting involved in the Harry Potter reboot. "It's simply: I spent a long time at that school, in those corridors and in those classrooms, and it was an exquisite experience and one I will always treasure. But to go back and do another year or two, for me, I feel I've left it. Being in the back of a van with [producer] Lawrence [Grey] in Atlanta of Savannah, hoofing it to try and make a drama, to me, at the moment, is more compelling than going through the hallowed gates of Hogwarts."

He added, "I wish that show so well, it's gonna be amazing to see them re-explore all it can be for the next generation. I think it'll be a challenge for everyone involved, but it's a very exciting enterprise and I wish it well. It was an amazing experience for me, and I know the other filmmakers who were involved, and it will be for the next generation of filmmakers."

[bikkinibottom]

actually to bring up how watered down and sanitized the first 3 episodes of percy jackson has been, it raises concerns for later books. the stakes are supposed to be high from book 1 and the bar continues to be raised. it’s an action packed series with monsters and gods and deadly quests. there’s the possibility of being killed. which raises the question, when titan’s curse rolls around, how will they handle not one but two character deaths? this is the book that’s the turning point in the series, where everyone senses this tonal shift and that they’re favorite characters could actually die. that kronos is serious and this impending war will be real, with real casualties, injuries, and intense battle scenes. how do you sanitize a literal war?

[darklinaforever]

So… The first two episodes of Percy Jackson are awesome !!!

On the other hand, it kills me, because there are already criticisms coming in and people are complaining that we are revealing the identity of Percy's father too quickly, when that is not at all the goal of the story.

That Percy killed the minotore very easily, even though it is precisely supposed to be a testimony to his great power as a demigod, especially one of the big three.

How childish it is, even though the protagonists are actually 12 years old. Like HP in the end, the story grows at the same time as the protagonists, that's… normally the goal when you follow young characters who grow over the course of the story ?

Then also, that it reflects the usual mythological clichés with Hades as a lightning thief… Lol, these people are not ready.

I feel like they can't wait until they have the overall story to judge. As if you were watching Harry Potter and directly expecting the atmosphere of the 5th books and its sequels ? This is completely stupid.

Especially when it comes to the madness with the father, that was never the main plot. Have these people even seen the trailer ? I already see critics saying that it's the Harry Potter of the poor and Harry Potter among the scoots…

Which is cheeky because, sorry, but Percy Jackson is a much better literary saga than Harry Potter in my opinion…

The number of people I've seen say that it was flat and very clearly predictable… Well, given everything that happens in 5 volumes, hats off for having managed to guess what's happening throughout the whole saga ! No, but more seriously, I'm sure that what's in their minds is light years away from everything this saga does over its 5 volumes.

[pooks]

Percy headcanon time! by Pooks!

everyone be like "post-second war, Percy moves back to the burrow"

but CONSIDER

he doesn't do that. he doesn't wanna go back, but he wants a good, healthy and stable relationship with his family. he even connects the old fireplace in his flat to the floo network, so they can travel with ease.

now you wonder, why doesn't he come back? for the better part, they assumed that Percy thought it was too cramped at the Burrow or that he wanted some adult independance, learning to grow into his adult role.

trust me, it's none of those reasons. his reason is something entirely different.

Percy got a TV.

no, he doesn't want to share it. no, he isn't giving up his TV with good reception and dozens of channels (headcanon; he's a sucker for tv dramas).

the most hilarious thing is when he and Molly argues about why that TV is so much better than her radio ("You can't see the visuals, Mother! And if I have to listen to Celestina Warbeck 24/7 again, I might throw myself into the Thames!") and when Arthur is so interested in the TV ("No, Dad. You can't experiment on my TV! It costed me so much Muggle money, please don't do that!")

and just as he expected and lowkey feared, his siblings starts to mooch on the TV. the younger ones, at least. Bill's busy being husband and father and Charlie hightailed back to Romania cause he misses his baby dragons.

and since this is end of 1990s and early 2000s, there is a slight civil war between his siblings about which channel is the best and yes, they're all cartoon-related.

Ron and Ginny likes Nickelodeon while Fred and George favors Cartoon Network.

Percy likes Disney Channel (and he's a big sucker for spanish telenovelas), tho, and successfully ropes in the others cause there's some good content.

of course, he comes home from work and always finds one or more of his siblings watching TV and he's annoyed at this point because damn it, he can't have ANYTHING for himself (true sibling energy, right there).

[hollowed-theory-hall]

ok so what are some of the changes you would want in the upcoming harry potter hbo series. and since your blog is Harry centric so I'll ask how do you want him to be portrayed in the series ? what traits of him do you think the series makers should shine more light on ?

Okay, I have, like, a list of things I didn't like in the movies and could be improved upon by the show. The list I have here isn't just about things the show could improve, but also things I want to see in the show in general. I think most of my opinions are pretty common, though.

(Also I'm not sure how good the show will be, like, I'm somewhat hopeful, but also very cautious with my expectations. We should start getting casting announcements around in a few months, which could help indicate where this show is going)

Regardless, here's my list of top concerns for the upcoming show:

Harry's character

This is the one you questioned specifically and one that could make or break the show for me. I want Harry's sass and anger, I don't want him to be a self-insert for the audience the way he was in the movies. I want his actual character. The sass, anger, and tenacity that is Harry Potter combined with his kindness, compassion, and sometimes clueless awkwardness. Let him be smart, clever, and talented.

Harry in the books is so much more than "just Expeliarmos" and the fact people could think that about Harry is a legitimate crime against his character the movies committed. Truly character assassination that Harry isn't an exceptional wizard with the world's lowest self-esteem and cheeky attitude.

(Also, for the love of god, give him green eyes, please. Contacts exist for a reason and it'll be a good way to differentiate the new actor from Radcliffe)

2. Ron & Hermione's characters

I could probably just put a "make all characters like in the books" category since this is true for a lot of them.

Specifically for the other two members of the Golden Trio, I want Hermione to have her flaws, and Ron to be smart. He is talented and smart and just as skilled as Harry and Hermione. He isn't the dumb comic relief and I'm so mad the movies made him such. And Hermione isn't a perfect Mary Sue who can do no wrong. Let her put Rita in a jar. Let her show how much she actually appreciates Ron and Harry and their approach to problems, different as it is to hers.

3. Voldemort's everything

I didn't like Voldemort's design, I didn't like his characterization, I didn't like how he spoke, how he walked — none of it felt like Voldemort to me.

I want Voldemort to be scary, not some odd caricature of himself. Give me a Voldemort design that looks scary. Give him the red eyes, and make him look actually skeletal. And let him move elegantly, talk softly. He isn't shouting and throwing tantrums, usually, he is very deliberate in what he says and does.

Also, give him his weird sense of humor. In the books, he makes bad puns ("Wormtail is here to lend a hand"), I like my villains a little campy with bad puns but also terrifying.

4. Dumbledore's everything

Well, honestly, I have no complaints about Dumbledore in the first movie, my problems started after he was recast.

I want Dumbledore to speak softly. I need an actor who could say "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" and make it work. I want an actor who'd smile like he knows things you don't as his eyes fucking twinkle, but could still look intense and even intimidating for the later seasons. I also want him to look whimsical and dress in the most absurd eye-catching robes you've ever seen.

5. On the matter of robes — wizard fashion

I want wizarding fashion. I want long robes, silly hats, colors, and patterns. I want the costume designers on the show to have fun with it. I want them to go wild.

The wizarding world should look whimsical and campy — that's part of the magic. I want it to look like a foreign world. Even the most purebloods of purebloods (like the Blacks) are more like the Addams Family than any serious drama. They have a sense of campiness and whimsy. Let wizards be weird as shit and show it in their dress and interior design (I mean, the Blacks hang house elf heads and have a troll leg umbrella stand, the Ministry of Magic has paper airplanes flying all around, they're weird).

6. About the more filler-y sections of the books

I want all the silly little plots that were removed from the movies. I think some of the more filer-y things add a lot to the books and to the whimsy of being a student at Hogwarts. I want the trio to sneak out Norbert, I want to see Peeves, the deathday party, all of these things that make Hogwarts truly feel like a magic school.

7. Hogwarts Castle

I love the castle of the movies and that of Hogwarts Legacy. Honestly, I think Hogwarts Legacy did a good job of capturing the feeling of the movies castle while making it its own new unique thing. I think the TV show should do something similar and kinda create a Hogwarts castle amalgamation of all previous iterations that would feel familiar and allow them to still use some of the same merchandise but also be new and unique at the same time.

8. Time period

I think this is a pretty common opinion, but I want the muggle clothes and sets to clearly be set in the 1990s. I want the show to be a period piece. I don't want to see smartphones, or modern fashion, or modern cars — none of that.

9. Age-appropriate casting

I'm not the only one who says this, but as great as Allen Rickman was, he was too old for the role. Part of the tragedy of Snape and the Marauders is how young they actually are. I think it'll just be much more heartbreaking if the actors looked as young as they're supposed to be.

(Including James and Lily in the flashbacks!)

10. Worldbuilding & extra scenes

Since it's a TV show and not a book, which opens up more perspective options, I would like to get, maybe, some extended Pottermore facts into the show. Like, to flash out the world in a way the movies didn't.

Additionally, I wouldn't mind if some extra scenes were added to build up characters we don't get as much of in the books and it could serve the plot. Like, as long as the scenes are added in a way which is like 'they might've happened in the books, we just didn't see them cause Harry wasn't there', that sort of thing without subtracting from anything else and without retconning or contradicting anything. Like, with good writers, this could be really well done, I'm just worried about them adding anything because I don't know how much faith I have in the whole project. But it could be cool if done well.

[marylily-my-beloved]

Sirius 'Don't know where you are right now, did you see me on tv?' Black

[joannerowling]

How involved do you think Jo will actually be in the TV show? She seems over HP by now

She's over it in the sense that the story is done, but that doesn't mean she won't be making sure MAX doesn't mess up. With the movies, we know for certain that:

She had a look at the scripts and gave feedback when things didn't make sense (his seemed mostly tied to the fact that the books were still being published at the time)

One of her conditions was having a wholly British cast and accurate casting for the foreign characters as well (evidently she went back on that with Depp, though his accent was the least of his issues)

She wasn't deeply involved with the actual casting : we know this because the first time she spoke to Emma Watson was over the phone after she had already been cast, and she didn't know Evanna Lynch had been cast as Luna, despite exchanging letters with her prior. When asked, most of the actors (kids and adults alike) say she wasn't on set and they had very little contact with her if any, with a few exceptions (Alan Rickman, Jude Law and Johnny Depp had in-depth conversations with her about their character).

Beyond that, it's usually vague "experts" or unnamed Warner Bros employees claiming that she had a huge amount of control, which should be put into perspective with the fact that writers usually get NO control. It seems she was consulted a lot mainly because her opinion was respected and the fandom loved her, and the real "control" she kept which actually bothered Warner Bros was over merch (specifically: what she approved or disapproved of, and how much money she took away from the sales).

We know there is a "book" these days, and a team, responsible for ensuring the safe-guarding of the IP, which were consulted during the making of Hogwarts Legacy without Jo's direct involvement (at least none that went public). She expressed more interest for the show though, tweeting about it when it was announced, specifically about how the books deserved an actualised and more faithful adaptation which the TV format would allow.

Obviously the context has changed for both JKR and WB since the 2000s. How involved JKR can be depends on two things: gains and leverage. There's no doubt that Jo has less glam to rely on today than she used to, but so far this doesn't seem to have impacted HP's or even her other work's success. She has expenses she didn't use to have though - Beira's place doesn't run itself. On the other hand, WB used to be a powerhouse of the cinematic industry, but the 2010s were disastrous for them and they are now very reliant on their remaining IPs to stay afloat. They can't risk JKR leaving with Harry Potter… but JKR has little to gain by breaking the relationship and starting anew with a different studio which might not be as willing to compromise (also there is no other studio that big with at least a foot in the UK left).

Tl;dr: Hard to say. If i had to guess, i'd say Jo agreed to be less publically involved, but still quite active behind the scene with trusted intermediaries, and little to no direct involvement with the cast, especially the kids to preserve them from the mob-like behaviour of TRAs.

[skeleboy13]

made a rtvs patch a couple of months ago cus i wanted to make one of my jackets more interesting :0

((progress shots under the cut cus i think the disparity is funny))

[ispaintingcalmly]

[toorumlk]

just to clarify before I follow cause your art is rad

are you a "thanks for the character concepts and vague world outline, we'll take it fron here" fan of Harry potter? or a J.K neutral/supporter?

thank you so much anon!

my work tends to be pretty aligned (and by pretty i mean like 98%) with canon and you’ll find me praising and engaging seriously with canon a lot.

i fully condemn jkr’s transphobia and gender crit NONSENSE. i truly disagree and hate her politics now but i think when she was writing the original 7 books, she had a good head on her shoulders. i read the books for the first time just this past year in my early 20s and man i’ve become a canonpilled book purist if there ever was one and i love these damn books/characters/world *shakes fist to the sky* so maybe this veers me more toward jkr neutral?

i can’t say definitively because i have and will continue to have complicated feelings about this but it’s up to you to decide!