First real look at HBO’s big-budget small screen take on JK Rowling’s best-selling books also reveals that first season will premiere this Christmas
After a lengthy casting process and tight-lipped production, Harry, Ron and Hermione are finally headed back to Hogwarts. Today, HBO released the first teaser trailer for the new Harry Potter TV series, with a previously unannounced premiere date of Christmas 2026.
The preview for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – the first season of the show, based on the first of seven books by JK Rowling – introduces the three central characters: Harry (Dominic McLaughlin) and his friends Hermione Granger (Arabella Stanton) and Ron Weasley (Alastair Stout), who meet as 11-year-olds on the train to their first year at wizarding school.
The two-minute spot, first premiered at a press event on Wednesday in London, also hints at several iconic moments from the book and 2001 film by Chris Columbus, including Harry’s first meeting with the half-giant Hagrid (Nick Frost), his trying on the Sorting Hat and his first Quidditch game as Gryffindor seeker.
McLaughlin, Stanton and Stout were cast, after an extensive search and open casting call for British children ages nine to 11, to play the central trio over several seasons, in relatively real time. Adult members of the cast include John Lithgow as Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Janet McTeer as Professor Minerva McGonagall and Paapa Essiedu as Professor Severus Snape. Succession writer Francesca Gardiner serves as showrunner of the series, which has been a tightly guarded production at Leavesden Studios in Hertfordshire, England, since last July. Game of Thrones and Succession veteran Mark Mylod directs several episodes.
