RUMOR ALERT: Hogwarts Legacy TV Show
Warner Brothers’ earnings call is ten days away.
Zaslav will be making a number of announcements both good and bad. Because he has to be seen to be doing something.
The most important this time is going to be who he is picking to run Wizarding World Productions (or whatever they are calling the Harry Potter Universe).
Zaslav needs something more solid than a name, he has to announce a production but if the DCU is anything to go by, he isn’t going to want to commit Warners’ future owner (whoever that will be) to anything major like a motion picture slate. he just wants to be able to present an active franchise with some shows in production, that the new owners can take and do with what they please.
The rumors are as follows. It’s going to be someone from Universal who is connected with the Wizarding World and the first project is going to be a Hogwarts Legacy TV series.
A Hogwarts Legacy TV show makes sense to me, interest is currently peak, you don’t have to deal with the original cast shrieking from the sidelines, or at least not as much as you would if you did a remake of the Harry Potter book series as a TV maxi-series. Warner Brothers has just had a big hit with the Last of Us so another TV show based on a game is an easy sell to the board.
The more interesting part of this rumor is the mystery man from Universal. Yes, Universal/Comcast has a big interest in the Wizarding World because of Universal Studios Park in Orlando. Plus, it’s an active interest, Warner Brothers hasn’t had anybody on staff making Harry Potter projects for a while. But it’s the fact that he/she IS from Universal/Comcast that is really significant because it means these two studios are talking.
I didn’t think there was anything to the rumors of Universal/Comcast merging with Warner Brothers Discovery because it would create some major problems with anti-trust laws due to vertical integration, and the FTC wouldn’t like it. Neither would their competitors. Although, one spoon full of sugar would be Zaslav taking all of Discovery’s assets with him when he leaves.
Yes, Zaslav can do that, it was written into Discovery’s merger with Warner Brothers. That’s what tells you that AT&T brought him in to be a turnaround CEO from the start. He was never planning on staying and he is taking his own company and his own management team away with him as soon as Warner Brothers is sold.
While it may be a hard sell to other interested parties, Universal/Comcast could be very interested in Warner Brothers, I don’t think they’d care too much about DC Comics, but Harry Potter is a different story entirely, they have a long term vested interest in that franchise.
They would have an even bigger interest if there is an active show.
Hogwarts Legacy is now outselling the mega-performer Elden Ring by leaps and bounds. The boycott not only completely failed, it actually promoted the game. A lot of that game’s sales came from people making a statement against activist censorship, money is being driven by a Woke backlash. The financial upside is clearly bigger than the political downside.
The boycott is the biggest Woke failure of all time.
