Rupert Grint, best known as Harry Potter’s best friend Ronald Weasley, weighs in on a potential reboot, suggesting a new TV series would be ideal.
Rupert Grint, the actor who brought Ronald Weasley to life in the Harry Potter series, offers his thoughts on a possible franchise reboot. Based on the best-selling fantasy books from J.K. Rowling, Grint was only 11 years old when he was first cast as Harry’s best friend for 2001’s Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. He would later go on to reprise his role another seven times before the famous film series eventually came to an end with 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Since his time at Hogwarts, Grint has continued to appear in numerous film and theater productions, including M. Night Shyamalan’s latest apocalyptic horror outing, Knock at the Cabin.
In the years since the original series concluded, several of Grint’s former co-stars, including Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton, have gone on the record to suggest a Harry Potter franchise reboot is bound to happen eventually. Now, Grint adds his voice to the chorus of former Hogwarts students telling fans to expect a new take on the beloved property at some point in the future. During an interview with GQ, the former wizard also says he would like to see the source material given a potential television series adaptation, suggesting “it would really work.” Check out his comments below:
I’d love to see Harry Potter be adapted into a TV show. I think it would really work. I’m sure the films will get remade, anyway.
Could A Harry Potter TV Reboot Work?
With Eddie Redmayne recently confirming there are no current plans to continue with the Fantastic Beasts spinoff films after last year’s Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, audiences are now left wondering what is next for the Wizarding World franchise. While the Fantastic Beasts series ultimately failed to replicate the runaway box office successes enjoyed by the original Harry Potter films, Warner Bros. Discovery is unlikely to abandon the highly profitable IP altogether. Late last year, WBD CEO David Zaslav even admitted he was open to the idea of more Harry Potter films if Rowling was onboard.
However, while many viewers are expecting the Wizarding World’s next logical step to be a film adaptation of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage production, perhaps Grint’s suggestion of a television reboot would be the best way forward for the franchise. With other high-profile fantasy shows such as House of the Dragon and The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power already serving as massive drawcards for HBO and Prime Video, a live-action Harry Potter series could potentially attract an even broader audience by appealing to both younger viewers and older fans alike. Moreover, a long-running television series could also pay due attention to many of the books’ finer details that were either glossed over or left out of the original films entirely.
Of course, the Harry Potter franchise has recently lost a great many loyal fans due to a string of controversial comments made by Rowling, many of which have been publicly decried as harmful and transphobic. These, combined with the lackluster performance of the Fantastic Beasts films, means any attempts to revitalize or reboot the Wizarding World will inevitably be starting out from a less-than-ideal position. If a Harry Potter television reboot is ever to succeed, the studio will need to find a way to cleanse the bitter aftertaste of the franchise’s recent failures and controversies. Even then, it will also have the enormous legacy of the original films to contend with as well. Perhaps the right cast and showrunner could find a way to overcome these massive hurdles, but it would certainly be a task far more challenging than any of those ever featured in the Tri-Wizard Cup.
Source: GQ