Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Hints at Interest in Future ‘Harry Potter’ Movies With J.K. Rowling

By Samantha Nungesser @samjnungesser
Published Nov. 4, 2022, 9:21 a.m. ET

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David Zaslav

It’s been 11 years since the last Harry Potter movie was released and it looks like there might be a chance for future installments. During Thursday’s (Nov. 3) Q3 earnings call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav hinted at his interest in the franchise if they can do “something” with controversial Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling “going forward.”

When asked how content will be “different” now that WarnerMedia has merged with Discovery, Zaslav said, “We’re going to have a real focus on franchises,” per Variety. He noted that they haven’t done a Superman movie or a Harry Potter movie in more than a decade, adding that the DC and Harry Potter films brought in “a lot of the profits of Warner Bros. Motion Pictures over the last 25 years.”

He continued, “So a focus on the franchise — one of the big advantages that we have, House of the Dragon is an example of that, Game of Thrones, taking advantage of Sex and the City, Lord of the Rings, we still have the right to do Lord of the Rings movies. What are the movies that have brands that are understood and loved everywhere in the world?”

Zaslav went on to point out that outside the U.S., specifically Europe, Latin America, and Asia, only have 40% of the movie theaters that we have here. He revealed that the company often makes two to three times the amount of money they would make in the U.S. on a franchise film because they “get a slot” and “a focus on the big movies that are loved.”

“We have a lot of them,” he said. “Batman, Superman, Aquaman, if we can do something with J.K. on Harry Potter going forward, Lord of the Rings, what are we doing with Game of Thrones? What are we doing with a lot of the big franchises that we have? We’re focused on franchises.”

Rowling found herself in hot water back in 2020 after posting a thread of tweets that many found to be transphobic. She wrote, “If sex isn’t real, there’s no same-sex attraction. If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased.” Shortly after, Harry Potter star Emma Watson wrote her own tweet in support of her transgender followers, and Daniel Radcliffe penned an open letter where he said, “Transgender women are women.”