J.K. Rowling will be an executive producer on new Harry Potter TV series

It's officially time to head back to Hogwarts.

Warner Bros. Discovery has greenlit a Harry Potter scripted television series, which will be executive-produced by author J.K. Rowling, the company announced Wednesday during a press event for its revamped Max streaming service.

Much like the film series starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson that came before it, the upcoming Max Original aims to faithfully adapt Rowling's beloved tale of the Boy Who Lived and his epic fight against the evil Lord Voldemort. However, instead of appearing in film installments, the Golden Trio's magical adventures at Hogwarts will be explored over the course of multiple seasons, bringing greater life and detail to the Wizarding World.

"Max's commitment to preserving the integrity of my books is important to me," Rowling said in a statement. "I'm looking forward to being part of this new adaptation which will allow for a degree of depth and detail only afforded by a long form television series."

"We are delighted to give audiences the opportunity to discover Hogwarts in a whole new way," added Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content. "Harry Potter is a cultural phenomenon and it is clear there is such an enduring love and thirst for the Wizarding World. In partnership with Warner Bros. Television and J.K. Rowling, this new Max Original series will dive deep into each of the iconic books that fans have continued to enjoy for all of these years."

The show promises to be "authentic" to Rowling's seven novels and introduce audiences to a new cast of actors, while also featuring the return of "much loved characters," "dramatic locations," and "fantastic detail" that Harry Potter fans have grown up reading.

In a post-show Q&A, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said the company is embarking on a "full deployment on the Max platform of Harry Potter," which, he noted, could involve any number of projects. "We're free to do anything," he said. In terms of scale and investment, Bloys imagines the project will be on par with Game of Thrones and other large HBO series. He says they're willing to do "whatever it takes to make a quality show."

The news is sure to ignite controversy among those who've taken issue with Rowling's repeated comments about the transgender community. The author has been criticized by members of own her fan base and LGBTQIA+ organizations for reiterating hurtful rhetoric that is tied to the TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) movement, which often posits the belief that trans women are not women.

When asked about the controversy surrounding Rowling and whether they have any concerns about "attracting talent" to the project, Bloys declined to comment in detail. He described the Rowling discourse as a "very online conversation" that's "obviously very nuanced and complicated." He added, "Our priority is what's on screen, and obviously the Harry Potter story is incredibly formative and positive and about love and self-acceptance."

In a recent interview, Rowling claimed that "a ton of Potter fans were still with me" and that they were "grateful that I'd said what I said."

"My position is that I am absolutely upholding the positions that I took in Potter," she continued. "My position is that this activist movement, in the form that it's currently taking, echoes the very thing that I was warning against in Harry Potter."

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