It’s time to start planning for a Harry Potter TV series

I love the Harry Potter world. The books are the pinnacle with a detailed, rich story full of humour, passion, action and adventure. The films bring them to life and give you highlights of the life of Harry, Ron and Hermione while at Hogwarts.

Unfortunately that really is all you get from the films, a highlight of the story in the books. They miss the prolonged wait and testing of the Firebolt in Prisoner of Azkaban and it misses the joy and pointlessness of SPEW and the knitted hats.

A film has to squeeze a lot of story into about two hours, whereas a series can spread it over 10 to 12 hours depending on the length of the season.

The first Harry Potter film cost $130m to produce. The latest Netflix series, Marco Polo cost $90m for ten episodes.

However, a series like Harry Potter would be such a huge financial draw that they could sustain a higher budget cost. Maybe even $130m per season, especially if they use unknown actors.

Yes that is the same price for 10 hours as the first film cost for two hours, but overall the cost base of a TV series is lower as not every hour has to be full of everything.

The time isn’t right yet, but give it a decade or so, when another whole generation have grown up enjoying Harry Potter (I’ve just finished re-watching all the films with my eight year old son) and a TV series could be viable and more acceptable.

Yes there was an element of outcry when a new cast was introduced for the Harry Potter stage play — the Cursed Child — but that will blow over when the run starts and people get used to the new cast.

So I say give it a five to ten years, give it a big budget and a free creative reign and show more of what is in the books than the films did and the world could just be ready — and eager — for Harry Potter the TV series.