After tough competition, Francesca Gardiner won the position of creative head and head author of the Harry Potter series planned by HBO and Warner Bros. in June 2024. The showrunner, who is known for series like Succession and His Dark Materials, seems tailor-made for the fantastic and challenging work on the fantasy series – because she identifies herself with one of the most popular and conscientious characters in the Potter universe.
Harry Potter showrunner Francesca Gardiner identifies with Hermione Granger
As Deadline reports in a comprehensive portrait, Gardiner recognizes himself in the Harry Potter world primarily in the bookworm and model student Hermione Granger. She explained that she was like Hermione before “Unsympathetically always wanted to be top of the class”.
Even in her youth, Gardiner liked to immerse herself in novels, which led her, via a detour, to writing screenplays. Gardiner was particularly fond of Philip Pullman’s novel The Amber Spyglass. Her Fascination with fantasy stories She was finally able to live her life to the fullest when she was hired as an author on the series adaptation of Pullman’s novel series His Dark Materials by HBO and BBC.
Called “Checky” by her friends and as “polite and well-mannered” described, Gardiner should always be one “real sparkle and one sense of mischief“ have carried within themselves. She further described herself with the following words: “I don’t like the word bossy, but I’m straightforward with my opinions, I’m assertive. I have a strong sense of what I like.”
If that doesn’t remind us of Hermione? Gardiner is not alone in choosing her identification figure. Harry Potter author JK Rowling has also stated several times in the past that she of all the Harry Potter characters, especially in Hermione herself. Given Rowling’s limited involvement in the series, HBO and Warner may have found a suitable addition here.
According to Deadline, Gardiner has put together a writers’ room for the Harry Potter series, which consists of Laura Neal (Killing Eve), Andy Greenwald (Briarpatch – Texas Kills!) and her sister Josephine Gardiner, with whom she already worked on a joint film project . Gardiner’s Succession colleague Mark Mylod will direct several episodes.
Fantasy epic: When is the Harry Potter series coming?
After the Harry Potter series was previously announced for 2026, HBO boss Casey Bloys recently explained that the start was originally planned for the end of 2026 to 2027. Deadline now also writes about one Starting in 2027. The first season of the series will cover the first book in JK Rowling’s novel series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
Until then, you can read everything else you need to know about the series here.
What you can watch instead of Harry Potter: The 15 best series starts in December on Netflix, Amazon and Co.
Do you need more fresh streaming tips? We present the most exciting series in December, which start on Netflix, Amazon, Disney+ and Co., in the monthly overview:
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In addition to thrillers, sci-fi and a remade fantasy adventure, the 15 series highlights in December also include the return of the popular serial killer Dexter, a new Star Wars series and new episodes of the most successful Netflix series of all time, Squid Game.