On March 25, 2026, HBO dropped its first official trailer for its upcoming Harry Potter series. We’ve been reporting on this for a while now and keeping up with casting news specifically. We all knew the trailer had to come eventually, and here it is, nine months before the series will premiere. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is part of HBO’s big bet on branding. They want to capitalize on their existing IP’s, and they know that Harry Potter is a big one.
So how did the trailer come across? It’s perfectly fine.
Playing it Safe
Basically, we can expect this to be an adaptation of Harry Potter that’s probably going to be exactly what someone might expect: a TV series that tells the story instead of a film. You can take that any way you want to. The trailer just reveals basic story points we’d come to expect early in the story. Harry’s being mistreated by his aunt, he gets his invite to Hogwarts, we see the train station, we meet Hagrid; it’s everything you’d expect. Along the way through the teaser, we see a couple of Hogwarts professors, Harry’s friends, a Quidditch pitch, and even a magic wand.
The “problem” here is that most of the people watching this teaser have already seen the Harry Potter films. Fortunately for fans and unfortunately for the new cast of actors, the films were so well cast that this crop of talent will live in their shadow. It doesn’t help matters that we’ve also lost so many of those legends. Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, Robbie Coltrane, Richard Harris, and Michael Gambon are just some of the people who have passed on. Replacing them is impossible; it’ll never truly sink in. Of course, most James Bond fans will tell you that you have to give an actor a shot at the role and actually watch them first.
Beyond the Actors
Anytime something is remade or recast, conversations happen about the worthiness of the actors. This happened when the book was being turned into a film as well. It’ll happen with other projects and always will. That doesn’t actually speak to the quality of the trailer itself, which is perfectly serviceable. It doesn’t do anything offensively bad, but it also doesn’t do anything explicitly great. The score is fine, the child actors seem capable, and the set and the costumes definitely look very Potter-esque. The biggest gripe one could have is that it looks too similar to the film, so what’s the point?
Obviously, a series adaptation can give us more to work with to tell the story. If the film version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s (Philosopher’s) Stone was the Cliff Notes version, this is more akin to the unabridged book. Or at least, that’s the thought. We can’t tell from this trailer how in-depth the episodes will go into the minutia, but we’ll eventually find out. There’s not much here to work with other than seeing what some of the actors look like in their roles.
Professor Snape
To that end, let’s talk about Snape. Here he’s being played by Paapa Essiedu. Whether it’s because people think it’s funny to joke about it or because it’s vitriol over the casting choice, the YouTube comments are filled with remarks about Snape being black. Essiedu, like Snape’s previous actor, Alan Rickman, has been part of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He’s an intensely talented actor both in front of the camera and on the stage. There is very little reason to believe he will give anything but a great performance. You would think that Potter fans could rejoice that they have a Shakespearean-trained actor in the role of Snape. You do not get much heavier gravitas than Shakespeare. If Rickman were still alive, he’d be thrilled that a fellow member of the RSC would be playing this part, and he wouldn’t care about the color of their skin.
Ultimately, this version of Harry Potter is going to be someone’s introduction to the series. Someone is going to watch this, and it will be the first time they see life given to Harry, Hermione, Ron, and everyone else. If this trailer is anything to go by, then it will be a perfectly serviceable introduction. Better than the movie? No idea. Really can’t tell from these two minutes if it will be or not. Maybe that’s the biggest sin it commits. This trailer is the epitome of “safe.” But that’s how HBO wants to play this right now. They don’t want to rock the boat and scare away viewers. They don’t want to show something new or different. This has to be something predictable, which it is to a potential fault.
We’ll report more as other trailers drop in the lead up to the series release on Christmas 2026.
