Christmas at Hogwarts: Watch the First Trailer for HBO’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

In a major surprise for fans worldwide, HBO has officially announced that the highly anticipated Harry Potter television series will premiere earlier than expected, arriving this Christmas.

The first season of Harry Potter will premiere on December 25 on Crave. The series will faithfully adapt the Harry Potter novel series into seven seasons, with each season adapting one book. The first season will be based on Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The series is created by Francesca Gardiner, the writer of His Dark Materials, and Mark Mylod, an Emmy Awards winner for Succession, will direct some episodes.

The main cast of the first season includes:

Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter;

Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley;

Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger;

Emmy Awards winner John Lithgow (The Crown) as Albus Dumbledore;

Golden Globe Awards winner for Best Actress Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds) as Minerva McGonagall;

Paapa Essiedu (I May Destroy You) as Severus Snape;

Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead) as Rubeus Hagrid;

Paul Whitehouse as Argus Filch;

Luke Thallon as Quirinus Quirrell;

Lox Pratt as Draco Malfoy;

Bel Powley (The Morning Show) as Petunia Dursley; and

Daniel Rigby as Vernon Dursley

The Harry Potter series was created by J. K. Rowling, with seven novels published between 1997 and 2007. Prior to this television adaptation, the series was also adapted into eight films, released between 2001 and 2011. Subsequently, Warner Bros. also released the spin-off film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in 2016, followed by two sequels in 2018 and 2022. This spin-off series was originally planned for five installments, but due to the lukewarm reception and box office performance of the sequels, Warner Bros. appears to have abandoned the final two films. The total box office revenue for these two film series is close to ten billion dollars, ranking fourth among film series in film history. Let’s see if the television series would generate similar excitement when it premieres later this year.

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Photo and Source: Warner Bros. Discovery