There are also reportedly attempts to bring the books’ author JK Rowling on board as a producer, although a deal is yet to be made.
The first Harry Potter book, The Philosopher’s Stone, was released 26 years ago in 1997, quickly becoming a worldwide phenomenon.
There are seven instalments of the series, ending with Deathly Hallows, with the first of eight films with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint premiering in 2001.
Bloomberg alleges that HBO – which is owned by Warner Bros Discovery – is close to reaching a deal to create a TV series based on the tale of the boy wizard, who survives what should have been a deadly attack by the world’s most feared wizard when he’s just a baby.
The publication claims that the report comes from ‘a person with knowledge of the matter’, with each season of the show supposedly set to be based on each book.
David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros Discovery, and HBO boss Casey Bloys are said to have been trying to persuade Rowling to get involved with the series as a producer.
The source said that Rowling wouldn’t be involved in the televised adaptation as the primary creator, nor would she lead the day-to-day running of the production, but she would ensure that the programme ‘remains loyal’ to the original source material if a deal is struck.
The publication said that a spokesperson for Warner Bros declined to comment, as the film and entertainment studio gears up to announce a new streaming strategy in the coming days.
Earlier this year, Rowling said that she didn’t care about ‘ruining’ her legacy over her views on the trans community and gender issues, having sparked controversy and been accused of being transphobic for her past remarks, which she has denied.
In 2020, the 57-year-old called out an article that referred to ‘people who menstruate’, asking why it did not say ‘women’ instead.
Following accusations of being transphobic, as cisgender women aren’t the only people who can menstruate, several members of the Harry Potter cast have since spoken out to voice their support for the trans community in opposition to Rowling’s comments over the years.
In a recent episode of The Witch Trials of JK Rowling podcast, she said: ‘I never set out to upset anyone. However, I was not uncomfortable with getting off my pedestal.’
The writer continued: ‘And what has interested me in the last 10 years and certainly in the last few years, particularly on social media “You’ve ruined your legacy, oh you could have been beloved forever but you chose to say this” and I think you could not have misunderstood me more profoundly.
‘I do not walk around my house thinking about my legacy, what a pompous way to live your life walking around thinking about what my legacy will be. Whatever. I’ll be dead. I care about now. I care about the living.’
She later acknowledged that she ‘absolutely knew’ that her comments on the transgender community would make Harry Potter fans feel ‘deeply unhappy’.
‘I’m constantly told that I have betrayed my own books, but my position is that I’m absolutely upholding the positions that I took in Potter,’ she said.
‘My position is that this activist movement in the form that it’s currently taking, echoes the very thing that I was warning against in Harry Potter.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted Warner Bros, HBO and JK Rowling for comment.
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