Production has begun on the highly-anticipated, much-hyped Harry Potter TV series. Filming began today at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in the east of England, the same studio that was home to the filming of all of the previous Harry Potter films.
The show has been confirmed to debut in 2027 on HBO and HBO Max. Filming on the first season is expected to last until autumn 2026 (the UK spring) before resuming production on season 2 after a short break.
There will be no speculation on what new star Dominic McLaughlin will look like as the titular boy wizard, with HBO revealing a first-look photo of him in costume.
Dominic McLaughlin in costume as Harry Potter
Starring alongside McLaughlin is Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley. All three actors are newcomers, with Stanton having some minor name recognition following roles on stage in West End productions of Matilda: The Musical and Starlight Express.
They were cast in their roles following a casting call that saw more than 30,000 actors audition.
Arabella Stanton, Dominic McLaughlin, and Alastair Stout
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson starred in the original film series, which had eight films released across ten years. It is not believed that any of the three actors will play a role in the new TV series.
Actors announced for the new TV series include John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall, Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape, Nick Frost as Hagrid, Katherine Parkinson as Molly Weasley, and Johnny Flynn as Lucius Malfoy.
Succession director-producer Mark Mylod is directing the pilot for the new series, with writer Francesca Gardiner serving as Showrunner. Gardiner is best known as a writer on the BBC-HBO co-production His Dark Materials, but was also credited as a consulting producer on HBO’s Succession.
It is understood that each season of the new HBO Max Harry Potter TV show will adapt a book from the JK Rowling book series. There were seven books in the series, each previously adapted in the film series with the final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows split into two movies. It is still too early in the production to know whether the TV series will split any of the books into multiple TV seasons.