The highly anticipated TV adaptation of the Harry Potter series has been reported to be a record-breaker before it even hits screens.
HBO will adapt each of JK Rowling’s wizarding tomes into a season of television, as part of a ten-year plan to bring a new generation of viewers to the long-untouched Hogwarts IP.
The budget reported so far would make the HBO show the most expensive ever to be made, trouncing Prime Video’s $465 million (£399 million) price tag for Rings of Power.
The Express reported each episode would cost £75 million to make, boosting the UK economy by billions.
However, a source close to the production has now confirmed to Metro that the reported figure is inaccurate.
Instead, the production costs will be on a par with Game of Thrones’ budget. The eighth season of the show was its most expensive, costing roughly $15 million (almost £12 million at the time) per episode.
Yet the wizarding adaptation is set to be a high numbers affair regardless, with 30,000 young hopefuls having thrown their name into the sorting hat at the casting director’s office, each vying to follow in the footsteps of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.
HBO has now confirmed Dominic McLaughlin, Arabella Stanton and Alastair Stout have been cast as Harry, Hermione and Ron in their first screen acting roles.
The production had already shared a swathe of casting announcements, with John Lithgow set to play headmaster Albus Dumbledore, I May Destroy You star Paapa Essiedu taking on Severus Snape and Nick Frost as Hagrid.
The benefit to the UK from the next decade of Potterdom is said to be ‘probably incalculable’, according to Tom Harrington, an analyst at Enders Analysis.
He told The Times: ‘It’s not just the box office, the merchandise, the tourists or the tours arising from the books, but the resurgence of big UK film and TV production that came in the wake of the Potter films.’
Pictures have already emerged of the £1billion ‘mini city’ being built for the adaptation at the Warner Bros studio complex in Leavesden.
The vast studio extension reportedly includes a (real) school for its young actors, who will continue their education as they juggle shooting responsibilities with their studies.
Francesca Gardiner, who’s worked on Killing Eve and His Dark Materials, will serve as showrunner after winning out a hugely competitive process, which required writing a pilot script and being interviewed by Rowling for the sign-off.
She’ll be joined by directing wizard Mark Mylod, the talent behind Succession and the pivotal attack on Jackson in the second season of The Last of Us.
The first season is set to begin filming this summer and will arrive on screens in 2026.
The Harry Potter TV show will stream exclusively on Max in 2026.
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