And we really hope it succeeds.
Legend has it that Game of Thrones was pitched to HBO as “The Sopranos in Middle-earth” — and that was probably the reason for the show’s success.
2011 was definitely not the best time to launch an epic fantasy. Breaking Bad and Mad Men were considered the standard for drama at the time — psychological and accurate in their depiction of the era. HBO’s calling card at the time was not dragons, but Martin Scorsese ‘s Boardwalk Empire, the TV equivalent of The Godfather.
Game of Thrones Completely Changed TV Industry
HBO took a risk with the adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, because in the late 2000s, a very clear line was being drawn between cinema and television.
Epic storytelling in the 21st century was almost entirely left to the movies: Harry Potter was released almost at the same time as The Lord of the Rings, then came The Chronicles of Narnia. Television, on the other hand, was moving toward psychologism, and Game of Thrones’ main achievement was to erase those boundaries.
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Today, thanks to Game of Thrones, every network sees it as its duty to build a universe that will sustain it for decades. Most attempts are failing, and billions are being spent looking for a new hit.
Starz had American Gods, Netflix expected The Witcher to be a hit, and HBO had high hopes for Westworld. None of them came close to Game of Thrones. But one upcoming project has every chance to do so.
Harry Potter Is No Longer Max Project, and That’s Good News
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It was recently announced that the Harry Potter series will not be released as a Max project, but as an HBO Original project. This is good news for viewers — apparently, the future show will have an even more impressive budget than originally expected.
The first season of House of the Dragon cost approximately $200 million and became the subject of the largest marketing campaign in HBO history, which cost more than $100 million. So we can expect similar budgets for the new Harry Potter story. And yes, considering all this, Harry Potter will be able to stand on a par with Game of Thrones.
HBO Is the Best Option to Bring Harry Potter to Small Screens
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HBO has proven to be conscientious in adapting the source material, so we can safely say that the story of the young wizard will be the same as in the books. And the statements that this will be a ten-season project will allow the creators to reveal all the necessary storylines, and especially those that, as fans complained, did not make it into the movies.
Harry’s transformation from a lonely orphan to a hero who saves the world is certainly the main plot of the novels. But it is the unique world and the magical elements that surround it that make the Potter stories so special and so beloved around the world. And HBO has every opportunity to bring the magic to the screen better than anyone has before.
