It’s only 81 days until season one of the Harry Potter TV show premieres on Christmas Day. Here’s the latest news in our TV show roundup.
Warwick Davis says reprising Flitwick role a ‘huge honour’
Warwick Davis reprises his role as Charms professor and Ravenclaw Head of House Filius Flitwick in the TV series. In a recent interview, Davis said of his role: ‘to be asked to come back and play him again for the series was a huge honour, and I’m excited to retell these stories because they’re fantastic stories.’
Davis was tight-lipped about his role in the series and whether Flitwick will see more screen time than in the film series. ‘He’s a very warm, kind of likeable character, as far as I’m concerned … but I can’t tell you anything about the series yet because it’s all very top secret.’
Warwick Davis played Filius Flitwick across all of the Harry Potter films, as well as the goblin Griphook in Deathly Hallows films. American actor Verne Troyer played the goblin in Philosopher’s Stone, while David provided the voice.
Hans Zimmer won’t attempt to imitate John Williams
Harry Potter TV series composer Hans Zimmer says he ‘can’t write like John Williams’ and his approach to following the maestro is to ‘try to stay away as far as possible and try to be original’. In a recent interview, Zimmer spoke about scoring in Williams’ footsteps, a task he’s familiar with after writing music for Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel.
John Williams scored the first three Harry Potter films, while Scottish composer Patrick Doyle scored Goblet of Fire, Nicholas Hooper scored Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, and Alexandre Desplat scored both Deathly Hallows films.
It’s worth noting Zimmer’s quotes were specifically about following in Williams’ footsteps in the Superman franchise, not Harry Potter. While Zimmer’s score will undoubtedly be an original take on the Wizarding World, we don’t have any confirmation that it won’t feature any of Williams’ melodies. It’s hard to imagine a ‘Potter’ property without some interpretation of Hedwig’s Theme (even just over the studio logo), as was largely the case with the Fantastic Beasts film series.
Zimmer is composing season one in conjunction with Bleeding Fingers Music composers Kara Talve and Anže Rozman.
Warner Bros. and Paramount merger set to close
Paramount Skydance’s deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to close on Tuesday, bringing both Warner Bros. and HBO under the same parent company as Paramount. In their announcement, Paramount highlighted Harry Potter as one of the major franchises that will form part of the combined company. Neither Warner Bros. nor HBO are going away, and no changes to the TV series production have been announced.
David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said in August that ‘we greenlit Harry Potter for the next 10 consecutive years’, and HBO boss Casey Bloys said this month that he’s seen the entire first season, saying ‘it is great, and I’m very, very happy’.
The first season of the Harry Potter HBO TV series, an eight-episode adaptation of the first ‘Potter’ book, begins airing on Christmas Day.
