The Harry Potter (2026) show is already kicking off discussion, with the trailer alone establishing plenty of chatter about HBO’s big gamble. A new adaptation meant to stand alone alongside the Harry Potter film series that began 25 years ago, HBO’s Harry Potter comes with the weight of expectation and an unmistakable connection to the politics of series creator J.K. Rowling. The show is expected to run for seven seasons, reflecting the original books.
As such, this article shouldn’t be taken as an overt embrace of the new show and what it represents. Instead, this list highlights some of the challenges that this type of adaptation naturally faces, and how the upcoming HBO series can try to address them. If the Harry Potter show is going to be a good adaptation of already established material, these are some of the series it should look to for influence.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
Another fantasy classic of the millennial era that has been somewhat impacted by the fans’ broader displeasure with creator Joss Whedon over his behavior behind-the-scenes, Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s great supporting cast and ability to shift between being a classical “chosen one” narrative while also fostering a strong ensemble is exactly what HBO’s Harry Potter needs going forward.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992) was a fairly stand-alone adventure that didn’t offer much character depth to anyone besides Buffy and her love interest, Oliver Pike. By contrast, the show quickly developed a large supporting cast that could carry their own season-long storylines, with the likes of Willow, Giles, and especially Angel, who got his own spinoff in the form of the five-season-long Angel (1999) series, fleshing out the world and helping keep Buffy from becoming too stale.
Fun for fantasy fans who appreciate a mix of dark fantasy and character drama, Buffy is a similarly complicated but memorable relic. The Harry Potter show will hopefully go a similar route, playing with the larger cast of characters that exist in the setting instead of remaining just focused on Harry.
Bates Motel (2013-2017)
Beyond a willingness to shift the spotlight onto other characters, Harry Potter can hopefully learn from Bates Motel about how important it can be to tweak, expand, and even change certain characters. The ambitious AMC adaptation of Psycho (1960) brought a lot of unexpected humanity and depth to one of the horror genre’s most horrifying duos. While Psycho served as a clear influence, the showrunners added a lot of unexpected twists and turns to the narrative that simply didn’t exist in the original. This gave the actors a lot of meaty material to play with, all while steadily factoring into the natural development of the characters into the forms that most audiences are more familiar with.
The darker nature of this show makes it a hard recommendation for younger viewers. However, older audiences who prefer horror or dark thrillers should check it out. While Bates Motel is a far darker series than anyone expects the Harry Potter series to be, that willingness to play with the material for the sake of a better presentation in the show could be what helps elevate the divisive HBO series.
What We Do in the Shadows (2019-2024)
What We Do in the Shadows might be one of the best ever examples of a film being adapted to television, with a willingness to use the television medium to great effect in terms of representation and expansion. What We Do in the Shadows (2014) was a fun modern riff on the vampire archetypes that typically appear in horror films, with a blend of slapstick comedy, low-key interpersonal drama, and entertaining genre melding all elevating the premise. The show took it even further, though, building out the world in lots of inventive and memorable ways.
The Harry Potter show could do something similar, taking the time to really develop its own version of the Wizarding World as a means of differentiating itself from the older films. There’s also the very natural way in which What We Do in the Shadows added diversity to the original concept, especially in terms of sexuality. It’s an element that the Harry Potter series could embrace, although this is still a family show, of course, so don’t expect any of the crass humor that was often a highlight of the FX vampire comedy.
Cobra Kai (2018-2025)
An expansion of The Karate Kid (1984) that pulled just as much from the original film as it did from teen dramas like Degrassi: The Next Generation (2001) and contemporary genre riffs on high school like Riverdale (2017), Cobra Kai’s blend of teen drama and reimagining of an established setting could serve as a useful guide for Harry Potter. Cobra Kai blends the teen melodrama, relatable dynamics, and archetypal coming-of-age stories with the natural action of martial arts and the darker aspects of the underlying story.
Those are the same elements that could give Harry Potter a bit more staying power on an episode-to-episode basis, with the actual character dynamics, interactions, and relationships not only growing with the audience but expanding in emotionally ambitious ways. Especially as the show goes on, finding the balance between character focus and the larger plot will be crucial to Harry Potter working as a show.
Fargo (2014-2024)
The FX anthology crime thriller based on the Coen Brothers; crime classic Fargo (1996) might seem like an unexpected comparison point to Harry Potter. However, the ability that Fargo has to jump between tone and focus from episode to episode is a strength that the Harry Potter show should try to replicate. One of the more interesting things about the Harry Potter show is how the lengthened run-time will likely allow for larger showcases of the different eras that weren’t as fleshed out in the earlier adaptations. Visiting different time periods for an episode at a time, similar to how Mythic Quest (2020) does it with some of its heartbreakingly effective stand-alone episodes, would be a great way to justify the series-length adaptation.
Fargo is a better comparison point, though, especially as it pertains to time period adaptation. Actually seeing how the different decades and generations of wizarding culture differ might be a good way to introduce some more interesting design elements to the show, and episode-long visits to different characters or periods of history could be key ways to reflect the larger lore.
