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»Harry Potter«: A box office hit that has been marketed with numerous fan articles in recent years
Photo: Christian Charisius / picture alliance / dpa
It has been eleven years since the last part of the »Harry Potter« film series started.
According to Box Office Mojo, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2” alone grossed around 1.3 billion US dollars at the box office worldwide.
Warner Bros. apparently sees potential in this: As Warner boss David Zaslav announced according to information from the industry magazine "Hollywood Reporter", they want to concentrate on franchises and work more closely with the author JK Rowling.
"We haven't made a Harry Potter for 15 years," says Zaslav.
However, the films have "brought much of the profits to Warner Bros. over the past 25 years."
He would like to »see more«, said Zaslav: »If we can do something about Harry Potter together with JK, then it will continue.«
Warner Bros. still owns the theatrical rights to »Harry Potter« to this day.
Between 2001 and 2011, all Harry Potter novels were made into eight films, starring Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Rupert Grint (Ron Weasly) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger).
The film series was then further marketed, including with fan shops, theme parks and its own play, »Harry Potter and the Cursed Child«.
Director Chris Columbus recently said that he would like to bring the play to the cinema, preferably with Radcliffe.
But he had repeatedly emphasized that he did not want to play Harry Potter again.
"I'll never say never," Radcliffe said, but, "It's not something I'm really interested in right now."
JK Rowling has yet to comment on Zaslav's statement.
Her last novel in the series was published in 2007. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2011, however, she said that she could imagine more books: "I could definitely write an eighth, ninth or tenth."
Rowling has been repeatedly criticized in recent years.
The writer had repeatedly discriminated against trans women and, among other things, spoke out against gender reassignment surgeries.
Radcliffe distanced himself from Rowling's statements.
“Trans women are women.
Any statement that contradicts this erases the identity and dignity of trans people,” he wrote on his blog, while affirming that it is not so much the author of the books that matters – it is the readers and the books.
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