Warner Bros. Discovery CFO on Harry Potter: "We’re only just starting to expand"

[patricio]

Variety reports that Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels talked during a panel at Morgan Stanley’s investor conference Wednesday about the Harry Potter franchise:

“Take ‘Harry Potter’ as an example, the Wizarding World, the fact that we are enjoying this massive success with the ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ launch, 12 years after the last film came out, shows that there is so much opportunity and we’re only just starting to expand that,” Wiedenfels said. “We’ve got the new ‘Harry Potter’ tour coming up in Tokyo in the middle of the year. Long story short, I think this one-company approach, great leadership in the individual business units, but coordinated franchise management is probably one of the biggest opportunities the company has.”

What are your thoughts on that?

[patricio]

I personally found strange that the example he mentions is the the upcoming tour in Tokyo instead of mentioning more movies, TV series or any other type of story in any medium (comics, for example). My gut tells me that Warner Bros. wants to make more content based on the Wizarding World, but as we've repeated many times, they are blocked by JK Rowling and can't do anything without her approval.

So they can do videogames (remember Hogwarts Legacy is not the first videogame from Portkey Games and WB Games), they can do experiences (the Forbidden Forest one, for example), but when they try to do a new story, it is a bit more complicated.

[NewtFidoScamander]

Certainly makes sense, but my guess is there are indeed multiple things in the works (like that rumored Dumbledore/FB TV series) but they're really early in development. It is unusual these days I feel for the creator to still retain the rights, so it must be frustrating for some of the big wigs at WBD but very, very good for Jo. We know Zaslav met with her in person, and that before that (early last year), he'd publicly spoken about his appetite for Wizarding World TV series before Cursed Child entered the conversation.

My idea is that Jo has all the power here and they're going to have to keep her very, VERY happy if they want her to give them even just a few crumbs. That's why I think, aside from the few clues we got (and the fact that TSoD is the third most watched film on HBO Max in 2022, and the first two films were also consistently in the most watched films leading up to its release, during, and then around the release on HBO Max as well), that the FB TV series is very real. Jo can leverage that, continue Fantastic Beasts the way she sees fit, a TV series being so much of a better fit (as much as I love the first two films and really like the third) for it, and then she can give them that, and perhaps other TV series in return.

[patricio]

I agree that FB seris would be a good ending for the franchise, and it would allow to develop more threads and plots that for different reasons are being out in a movie. However, if they do that, I think it will take a few years, and only after that WB / HBO woudl release another Wizarding World.

I am not sure if they are going to risk to produce in parallel different WW TV shows without being sure they are going to be a success. The stats on streaming services are not all: the Snyder films are a living proof of that.

[NewtFidoScamander]

It's a great thing that the time jump allows for that though. They can easily say start shooting (if it's really early in development, and Richard Coyle supposedly said so to a fan a few months ago) in 2024 or more and with the format being what it is, no box office pressure, building a following and buzz from week to week would make the wait less of an issue imo.

ZSJL is a smash hit though across the globe, so I'm not sure what you mean by that. Ultimately, people can just unsubscribe once they've binged what they want to watch, so I doubt that will be part of the equation.

[TheRoyalGriffin]

I think Warner Bros. Discovery might (and should) be interested on the developent of new Harry Potter content in the field of movies and/or series, but I've always conceived Harry Potter as a magnificent gift that wraps only 7 original books. I love the Fantastic Beasts franchise, but I think is time to move on and start making "non-Hogwarts-centric" products. The Wizarding World is a giant universe, with many many things to explore, without the neccesitie to go "back to Hogwarts" every time, and in that trip, override already written lore.

[luckgustavo]

I personally found strange that the example he mentions is the the upcoming tour in Tokyo instead of mentioning more movies, TV series or any other type of story in any medium (comics, for example). My gut tells me that Warner Bros. wants to make more content based on the Wizarding World, but as we've repeated many times, they are blocked by JK Rowling and can't do anything without her approval.

So they can do videogames (remember Hogwarts Legacy is not the first videogame from Portkey Games and WB Games), they can do experiences (the Forbidden Forest one, for example), but when they try to do a new story, it is a bit more complicated.

I agree too! I see WB only expanding the WW in this way. We can expect more stories from Rowling? It's the question. I'm just cheering for more content from her.

[NewtFidoScamander]

The thing is, people LOVE Hogwarts for a reason imo. I do as well, nothing else compares to me, as much as I love NYC in the 1920s for example. I bet it's also one of the reasons Hogwarts Legacy is so successful. But with Jo needing to approve everything, I have total faith in her.

[patricio]

I once prepared a document explaining that: people love the locations of the Harry Potter series more than the characters themselves. Favourite scene from the films? When they see Hogwarts from the boats for the first time, or the Great Hall, or Diagon Alley. Not when a character appears for the first time.

It explains not only the success of Hogwarts Legacy but also the theme parks: people love the scenarios...

[NewtFidoScamander]

Respectfully disagree ^^ I was so glad that Hogwarts was brought into the fold on CoG and TSoD but it didn't seem to have helped out box office wise at all. I imagine you're not saying though that people don't have a deep, deep love for those characters, especially growing with them year after year.