David Zaslav has been meeting with J.K. Rowling about that Harry Potter series

David Zaslav and J.K. Rowling buddying up is unsurprising on many levels. For one, Zaslav’s mission statement immediately upon becoming CEO of the company was that “We’re going to have a real focus on franchises,” and Rowling’s Wizarding World is one of the most popular franchises of them all. Second, they both have pretty terrible reputations in the entertainment industry at the moment. Birds of a feather, etc., etc. And as recently as a few weeks ago, Zaslav and some WB brass were apparently in London to meet up with the writer about the upcoming Harry Potter television series, which they’re hoping to have streaming on Max by 2026.

“We’ve not been shy about our excitement around Harry Potter,” Zaslav said on Warner Bros. Discovery’s Q4 earnings call on Friday (per Variety). “We spent some real time with J.K. and her team. Both sides are just thrilled to be reigniting this franchise. Our conversations were great, and we couldn’t be more excited about what’s ahead. We can’t wait to share a decade of new stories with fans around the world on Max.”

According to Variety, Zaslav pointed out that WB hadn’t made a Harry Potter movie in over a dozen years, which is a closer estimate than he made previously (although still conveniently ignores the flop of the Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them franchise, which ended quite unceremoniously in 2022). Presumably, he’s emphasizing those dozen years in order to reassure stockholders it’s not too soon to remake the same seven Harry Potter books again. But the Potter films cast a long shadow. Given that they’re always rerunning on TV, and are conveniently available to stream at any time, and the stars are still around and speaking about it frequently—including in an anniversary special released by WB—a lot of people are still going to feel like this is “too soon.” The devotion of the Harry Potter fandom is such that there will still be viewers, but beloved IP isn’t a guarantee of a big audience: just look at Prime Video’s Lord Of The Rings series, the foremost (read: most expensive) flop in a long list of failed spin-off, reboot, remake, and live-action adaptation experiments.

All that aside, Deadline previously reported that a number of writers were being considered as the Harry Potter series showrunner, and “In late 2023, the top choices were expected to go on to the next round in the U.K., potentially meeting with Rowling herself.” If Rowling, Zaslav, HBO and Max content boss Casey Bloys and chairperson of Warner Bros. Television Channing Dungey were all hanging out in London, it seems likely that they were narrowing down the candidates. Love it or hate it, expect more Harry Potter news soon.