by Thinus Ferreira
HBO's new 10-year Harry Potter drama series will start filming around June 2025 at the Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the East of England with the producers currently working through 1 000 audition videos per day out of 32 000 that were submitted for casting.
On Thursday in London, HBO executives and the series showrunner and director gave an update to the media on the Harry Potter show that will very likely be on M-Net (DStv 101) and MultiChoice's video streaming service Showmax after it was reclassified a few months ago as an HBO Original and said that over 32 000 kids auditioned for the lead roles.
The Harry Potter series is expected to debut in 2026 and will very likely be an Express from the US title on MultiChoice's M-Net (DStv 101) channel on DStv.
According to showrunner Francesca Gardiner, producers are watching through almost 1 000 audition videos per day and haven't made any final casting choices yet.
According to Francesca Gardiner, the show will go according to the characters' ages as mentioned within the books, meaning that Professor Severus Snape will be 31 and Harry Potter's deceased parents James and Lily Potter will appear as 21-year-olds.
The series will make use of the existing sets at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden where the Food Network (DStv 175) recently filmed its Harry Potter: Wizards of Baking food competition series, and which has been used for studio tours since the production of the Harry Potter film series ended.
Director and executive producer Mark Mylod said that the Harry Potter series will use the existing infrastructure and architecture and "won't mess" with The Great Hall at Hogwarts but will expand upon the architecture of Hogwarts and other well-known places within the Harry Potter universe.
New as-yet-unseen areas of the Hogwarts school will be shown and explored within the show.
About casting Mark Mylod said "We haven't made any final choices but we're workshopping with a shortlist in January and there are some crackers".