Warner Bros. Denies Reports Of A ‘Harry Potter And The Cursed Child’ Movie Trilogy [Updated]
Update:Warner Bros has released the following statement in response to these reports: “‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ is a stage play, with no plans for there to be a film.”
Back in July, Warner Bros. Picturesfiled a trademarkforHarry Potter and the Cursed Child. This might not seem surprising since the film studio was the distributor of every single film in theHarry Potterfranchise, as well as the upcoming spin-offFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. However, Warner Bros. has absolutely nothing to do with the stage production of the play in the United Kingdom, which was also just published as a book at the end of last month. So having them file a trademark for motion pictures, merchandise and more seemed rather unnecessary, unless of course they were actually planning to make a movie.
Now a new rumor seems to indicate that Warner Bros. Pictures would like to turnHarry Potter and the Cursed Childinto a film trilogy that they hope to begin as early as 2020. In addition, they want to bring franchise starDaniel Radcliffeback in the lead role. Find out more about the proposedHarry Potter and the Cursed Childmovie trilogy after the jump.
This rumor comes fromThe New York Daily News, who can be hit or miss with big stories like this due to their predilection for gossip, so take it with a grain of salt for now. But their source had this to say about the project:
Warners is secretly working on getting the movie rights and a screenplay settled, and of course in their minds only one man should be Harry. However he has made it clear that his mind is certainly not focused on returning to the role anytime soon — and that could be until he hits 40.
If the studio filed a trademark, it doesn’t sound like they’re developing a movie in secrecy. However, since J.K. Rowling has previously said thatHarry Potter and the Cursed Childwould not be a movie, and the best format for the story was a stage play, maybe she was intentionally misleading us in an effort to keep fans off the scent.
However, gettingHarry Potter and the Cursed Childoff the ground could be tricky if they want Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role. The actorwas asked earlier this summerif he would ever return to the role of Harry Potter and he said:
It would depend on the script. The circumstances would have to be pretty extraordinary. But then I am sure Harrison Ford said that with Han Solo and look what happened there! So I am saying ‘no’ for now, but leaving room to backtrack in the future.
Production onHarry Potter and the Cursed Childwouldn’t need to start production until 2018 if Warner Bros. wanted to have a 2020 release date, so Radcliffe saying no at the time doesn’t mean he wouldn’t change his tune after a couple years. After all, I’m sure the studio is more than willing to throw plenty of money at Radcliffe to get him back as The Boy Who Lived all grown up.
However, if that route doesn’t work out, the same source indicates that the studio has also discussed the potential of storyline that focuses more on Harry Potter’s son. That sounds a little desperate, almost like Warner Bros. misguided plan for turningThe Hobbitinto a trilogy when it just needed to be one long movie. In the cast ofHarry Potter and the Cursed Child, at least the play is already split into two parts, so maybe there’s enough there for three movies. But again, that wasn’t the case withThe Hobbit.
Either way, the studio is still hoping for a new trilogy, and considering the timing of their hopeful release, it would immediately follow the conclusion of the proposedFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themtrilogy. A sequel is already in the works andplanned for release in 2018and a third one would logically follow in 2020.
Again, this is all just a rumor for now, but Warner Bros. eventually adaptingHarry Potter and the Cursed Childinto a movie (or three) is a no-brainer for the studio. We’ll just have to wait and see if this is something that will come together in the next few years or not.
