The Harry Potter novel series centered around a British orphan Harry Potter laid with the responsibility to save the world, as well as avenge his parent’s death by defeating long-time enemy Voldemort. The popularity of the books, which were once struggling to find a publisher, earned the interest of Warner Bros. Pictures which adapted the novels into an eight-part film series at the beginning decade of the 2000s.
After the spinoff series Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them did not fare well at the box office, David Zaslav seemed interested in bringing back the Harry Potter franchise by releasing a two-part adaptation of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
David Zaslav keen on the adaptation of Cursed Child
Fan favorite Harry Potter franchise was quite a success at the box office. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 2 were among the 50 highest-grossing films of all-time, ranking 48th and 15th highest respectively. Both of these movies grossed over $1 billion, with the entire series being the fourth highest-grossing film series with $7.7 billion in worldwide receipts.
Aware of the value of the franchise, David Zaslav has shown interest in bringing back the series with the film adaptation of Cursed Child. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is originally a play co-written by J.K. Rowlings which narrates the story of the friendship between Harry Potter’s son Albus Severus Potter and Draco Malfoy’s son Scorpio Malfoy and the fiascos a time-turner could cause. However, the idea of adaptation of Cursed Child as a two-part film was rejected by J.K. Rowlings, the author of the Harry Potter book series.
While the fans seem to be enthusiastic about the return of the Harry Potter franchise, an adaptation of Cursed Child may not be the wisest idea going ahead.
Probable end of the Fantastic Beasts franchise
The Fantastic Beasts franchise served as a prequel to the Harry Potter film franchise. However, while three parts of the pentalogy series are already out, the future doesn’t seem so bright for the remaining two.
While the mixed reactions from the fan about the movie series was mildly indicative of its discontinuance, David Zaslav’s statement that casually neglected the existence of the franchise gave rise to headlines.
“We’re going to have a real focus on franchises. We haven’t had a Superman movie in 13 years. We haven’t done a Harry Potter movie in 15 years. The DC movies and the Harry Potter movies provided a lot of profits for Warner Bros. Motion Pictures over the last 25 years.”
The reason that the Fantastic Beasts franchise failed was that the movies didn’t narrate as strong of a story for the fans to return to theaters to watch it continue. The movies after the first part of the franchise were original, rather than based on Rowlings’ books which may not have sat completely well with the fans of a franchise built on the base of a novel.
While the franchise was making a good attempt at narrating the story, it could’ve failed because of the change of casting as well as several fans boycotting it.
Harry Potter fans await the return of the Harry Potter franchise, hopefully not in the form of adapting Cursed Child.
Source: Comic Book Movie
