Harry Potter Wizarding World Expansion Just Getting Started, Teases Exec

According to Warner Bros. Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter has a very bright, expansive future ahead of it. Based on the beloved novel series by author J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter movie franchise first hit the big screen in 2001. After 7 sequels, a spinoff franchise, a stage play, and a video game, it’s unclear how the Wizarding World will continue.

During a panel at Morgan Stanley’s investor conference on Wednesday, as shared by Variety, Wiedenfels teases that the Harry Potter Wizarding World will continue to be an important franchise for Warner Bros. Discovery moving forward. The CFO’s comments come after the recent success of the Hogwarts Legacy video game, with Wiedenfels sharing that the company plans to further expand the world of the franchise in the years to come. Check out Wiedenfels’ full comment below:

“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. 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.”

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What Could Be Next For The Harry Potter Franchise

After the disappointing box office performance of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore last year, the future of the Wizarding World at large was called into question. Later in the year, however, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav shared that he was hoping to continue the company’s creative partnership with Rowling on future projects in that universe. HBO Max executive Sarah Aubrey would echo this sentiment, expressing an interest in bringing the world of Harry Potter to streaming.

Around the same time, it was reported that Zaslav was potentially interested in adapting the successful Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play into a film. As for whether the future of the franchise will bring back any original actors, both Emma Watson and Rupert Grint have expressed interest in reprising their roles, but Harry himself, Daniel Radcliffe, is seemingly less warm on the idea at present. Without Radcliffe returning, it’s unclear if a Harry Potter and the Cursed Child movie could actually work.

While the movie landscape for the Harry Potter franchise is somewhat murky at the moment, it’s possible that the Wizarding World will make the jump into TV. Considering the recent success of Hogwarts Legacy, it’s also likely that more Harry Potter video games are in the franchise’s future. Although it’s not clear what the next few years hold for the beloved franchise, the Wizarding World is seemingly going to be an important part of the entertainment landscape moving forward.

More: Harry Potter & Fantastic Beasts Official Timeline (Including Fantastic Beasts 3)

Source: Variety