 |
| On Reddit, users are debating whether HBO’s Harry Potter remake has a strong enough creative reason to exist. |
While fans debate casting and visuals, one viral post argues that a faithful remake—no matter how polished—might miss the magic of telling a completely new wizarding story.
With HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series still in early development, the online conversation has already split into familiar camps: those obsessing over who will play Snape, those hoping for a more book-accurate adaptation, and others just excited to see Hogwarts with a blockbuster TV budget. But buried beneath the casting rumors and set-design speculation, a single Reddit thread is asking a far more unsettling question—one that could ultimately decide whether the series feels like essential viewing or just an expensive rerun.
“What’s the ... point?”
That’s the provocative question posed by user u/CharakterRant in a widely discussed post on the subreddit r/CharacterRant. The author of the thread concedes that the first episode might very well be good. The visuals will likely be stunning. The pacing may allow for deeper dives into book subplots. Yet none of that, he argues, changes the core problem: we’ve seen this story before.
To drive the point home, the Redditor draws a clever analogy from the world of video games. He compares the upcoming HBO series to the Demon’s Souls remake—a technically breathtaking upgrade that recreates the original game almost beat-for-beat. “Visually impressive, but at its core it’s the same game,” he writes. In contrast, he points to the Final Fantasy VII Remake project, which uses the original characters and setting as a springboard to explore entirely new narrative territory. That, he suggests, is the difference between a product and a piece of art.
You can read the full, thought-provoking post here.
A better example from the wizarding world itself
As a positive counterexample, u/CharakterRant highlights Hogwarts Legacy. The video game, which became a massive hit in 2023, is set roughly a century before the events of the Harry Potter books. It features familiar locations—the castle, Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest—but populates them with new characters, a fresh mystery, and an original storyline. “That’s exactly what I would have wanted from HBO,” the Redditor writes. “Not another version of Hogwarts in slightly different robes, but another school. New perspectives. Original characters.”
He even argues that the current heated debate around Snape’s casting—specifically, the possibility of a Black actor playing the role—could have been entirely avoided if the series had simply introduced a different Potions professor at a different wizarding school. By anchoring the show to the exact same characters, HBO has inherited every single culture-war argument that came with them.
The community largely agrees—but understands HBO’s hesitation
Scroll through the hundreds of comments on the thread, and you’ll find a recurring sentiment: artistically, a straight remake feels unnecessary. “I’ve already read the books and seen the movies,” one top comment reads. “I don’t need a slightly longer version of the same scene with better CGI.” Another user adds, “The movies already exist and they’re fine. A remake only works if you do something radically different, like a Marauders era series.”
However, the community also shows a pragmatic understanding of HBO’s likely reasoning. “Economically, it makes perfect sense,” writes one self-described realist. “Harry Potter and ‘Hogwarts’ have massive recognition value. A new wizarding school without those names would be a much riskier bet.” Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns both HBO and the Harry Potter franchise, has made no secret of its desire for reliable, brand-driven hits. A prequel about Ilvermorny (the American wizarding school) or a Durmstrang-focused political thriller might excite hardcore fans, but it wouldn’t guarantee the kind of global, multi-generational launch event that a Harry Potter remake promises.
What could still save the series from creative redundancy?
Whether the HBO remake ultimately proves to be a creatively bankrupt exercise or a surprisingly fresh take depends on one factor above all: can the showrunners give the familiar story a noticeably new perspective? Many fans point to the His Dark Materials TV series as a model—it told the same basic story as the 2007 film The Golden Compass, but with a darker tone, more book-faithful characterizations, and enough new thematic depth to justify its existence.
For the Harry Potter series, that lifeline may come from the scenes that the movies never had time to include. The books are filled with memorable moments that were cut from the films: the backstory of the Marauders, the full trial of Igor Karkaroff, the deep-dive into the Gaunt family history, and the entire subplot involving Peeves the poltergeist. If HBO leans heavily into these “lost” sequences, the series could feel less like a remake and more like a director’s cut of the story we only thought we knew.
But if it simply re-creates the greatest hits with better special effects and a younger cast? Then Reddit user u/CharakterRant may have already written the most accurate review, months before the first episode even airs: “What’s the point?”
Source(s)
u/CharacterRant via Reddit (r/CharacterRant)
Image credit: Warner Bros. (concept art for HBO’s Harry Potter series, for illustrative purposes)