HBO’s planned Harry Potter TV series from Warner Bros. has long been in development for the past few years and the studio is aiming for a 2026 release. The new TV series adaptation will be transforming each of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels into a single season, meaning that the entire series could span seven seasons or more. The studio released a statement saying, “Each season will be authentic to the original books and bring Harry Potter and these incredible adventures to new audiences around the world, while the original, classic and beloved films will remain at the core of the franchise and available to watch globally.”

Recently, Ralph Fiennes, who portrayed the franchise’s villain Lord Voldemort, gave his approval of the suggestion that Cillian Murphy step in the role for the TV series. According to Deadline, as Fiennes appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live, someone made the suggestion for Murphy to play Voldemort and Fiennes responded, “Cillian is a fantastic actor. That’s a wonderful suggestion. I would be all in favor of Cillian. Yeah.” Murphy would win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Oppenheimer and he’s currently working on a feature version of Peaky Blinders.

While the Warner Bros. film franchise was a smashing success and featured Fiennes with actors like Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, and Maggie Smith, as well as making careers for Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson, the studio aims to utilize the full TV season length to adapt the books more in-depth. Channing Dungey, chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Television Group, said, “There’s not a lot to talk about at this moment. We’ve got our fantastic writing staff in place and they are doing what they need to do. And casting calls have opened up in the U.K. and Ireland, so the process is moving along. It’s going quite well. It’s an unbelievable dream, honestly, and as somebody who is a huge fan of books, the opportunity to get to explore them in maybe a little bit more in-depth than you can in just a two-hour film, that’s the whole reason we’re on this journey.“

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