This Christmas won’t be magical only because of the twinkling tree and the snow outside the window. After unwrapping the gifts—or later, after you’ve stuffed yourselves at lunch—the one place you’ll want to be is on the sofa, under a warm blanket, in front of the TV, watching Harry Potter. Not the films, as in years past, but something entirely new. On HBO Max, precisely on December 25, the first television adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s novels will premiere. It isn’t an original story set in the world of Hogwarts, but the tale you already know and love reimagined with an entirely new cast and a heightened attention to detail. The goal of an even more faithful and in-depth work cannot help but thrill fans, and the second trailer just released provides a new opportunity to better understand its success.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: The Beginning of the Story and a New Way of Telling It
Written by Francesca Gardiner, awarded with two Emmys for her work on HBO’s Succession, the first season of Harry Potter brings to the screen the story Rowling tells in the series’ first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Harry Potter (played by Dominic McLaughlin) is an orphaned boy who lives unhappily with the Dursleys, who have always hidden the truth about his parents. Shortly before his eleventh birthday, Harry discovers he is a wizard and is admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
There, he meets Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger (Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton), who become his best friends; he learns the truth about his parents’ deaths and about his connection to Lord Voldemort, the powerful dark wizard who years earlier had tried to kill him; he enters the world of magic and learns to cast spells, brew potions, and play Quidditch; he clashes with Draco Malfoy (Lox Pratt) and Professor Severus Snape (Paapa Essiedu); and begins to suspect, along with Ron and Hermione, that at Hogwarts someone is trying to steal a mysterious stone kept within the school, ultimately uncovering a threat tied to Voldemort’s return.
As mentioned, the key difference from the films will lie mainly in the level of detail. HBO has stated that the series intends to be an adaptation of the books, not merely a TV version of the films. An example of this comes from the casting of actors for characters who, in the first film, had been cut or largely diminished, such as Peeves, the Hogwarts poltergeist (Peter Serafinowicz), and several figures connected to the world of Quidditch. The latter aspect, which the new trailer shows in several moments along with other aspects of life at Hogwarts, also reveals the Italian voice acting for all these characters and for the others, including Albus Dumbledore (John Lithgow) and Professor McGonagall (Janet McTeer).
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