POLL RESULTS: Should Warner Bros. Reboot Harry Potter?

With Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald having disappointed with both critics and audiences, Warner Bros. Pictures and creator J.K. Rowling may have to rethink their approach to their Wizarding World franchise. ComingSoon.net asked its readers whether the studio should simply reboot the entire Harry Potter franchise and start again from scratch, possibly even reimagining the original landmark eight-film series. You can check out what CS readers said in the official poll results below!

Should Warner Bros. reboot the Harry Potter franchise?

No, it’s perfect! (72%, 1863 votes)

Yes, eventually. (28%, 711 votes)

Should a reboot of Harry Potter be…

A direct sequel featuring Harry’s son (41%, 964 votes)

A TV series set in the Wizarding World (35%, 829 votes)

A new, non-Fantastic Beasts spinoff (13%, 299 votes)

A remake of the original eight films (11%, 255 votes)

So it seems the majority of our readers don’t want New Coke Harry Potter, but rather Harry Potter Classic preserved for all time. That said, they wouldn’t mind seeing the story continued with a new adventure following Harry Potter progeny, but a remake? Never! There’s also a fair amount of enthusiasm for a Wizarding World TV series of some kind, which we could see eventually making its way onto the Warners streaming service HBO Max!

The eight Harry Potter movies released from 2001 to 2011 stand as the third-highest-grossing film series behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Star Wars with $7.7 billion in worldwide receipts. While the two Fantastic Beasts prequels have been financially successful, they haven’t stirred the same fervent fanbase that the original run did. Since Rowling is very protective of her property it’s unlikely that Warners would do anything without her involvement. Given that, it’s possible that the studio could use Rowling and Jack Thorne’s highly-successful play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as the basis for a new series of films chronicling Harry’s son Albus Severus Potter’s time at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Warners has already announced that Fantastic Beasts 3 (the third in a planned 5-film prequel cycle) has been delayed a year and will open on November 12, 2021. Production is scheduled to begin in spring 2020. Eddie Redmayne will reprise his role as Newt Scamander in the film, with Johnny Depp confirmed to return as well as the villain Grindelwald. The previous film in the Harry Potter prequel franchise, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, earned $653 million at the worldwide box office.

The first two Fantastic Beasts movies were directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by J.K. Rowling, and produced by David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram.