HBO to air standalone special on the making of new Harry Potter series

HBO has more Harry Potter magic up its sleeve – today, the company announced a standalone, behind-the-scenes special to accompany its upcoming TV adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic will offer “an in-depth look at the making of the first season”, including plenty of production footage and details on the lengthy, UK-wide casting process for Harry, Ron and Hermione, played by Dominic McLaughlin, Alastair Stout and Arabella Stanton.A teaser for the special, released on Thursday, shows interviews with cast members such as John Lithgow and Paapa Essiedu, who play Professors Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape, as well as time with numerous craftspeople who designed the updated Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. “To play in a sandbox this big, it really is incredible,” says one set designer over a model of a school castle. “We’re adding a level of world-building beyond what the audience is familiar with.”According to an official synopsis, the special, narrated by series actor Nick Frost (Hagrid), provides “an inside look at the epic scale and meticulous care behind HBO’s new Harry Potter series – told through the lens of the artists, craftspeople and technicians bringing JK Rowling’s beloved books to life for a new generation”.“Featuring interviews with members of the casting, production design, costume design, and creature effects teams, the special chronicles the extensive process behind finding our new Harry, Ron and Hermione – while celebrating the awe-inspiring commitment to detail and immense talent that has come together to fill out this extraordinary world.”“The Harry Potter stories are this extraordinary phenomenon,” says Lithgow in the trailer. “To reimagine the Harry Potter canon, to let it breathe – we get to enact all the things that you know are going on in the wings, but you don’t see them.”“You wait forever to do something that means that much to people,” he adds.Lithgow has previously said that he felt “stung” by backlash to the series stemming from Rowlings’ many public anti-transgender comments, as her books are “clearly on the side of the angels, against intolerance and bigotry”. Rowling, whose expansive Harry Potter world – including the books, films, video games and theater – is worth an estimated £20bn ($25bn), advises the series as an executive producer.The first trailer for the upcoming series – the first of a planned season per each of Rowling’s seven books – premiered last Thursday to great fanfare online. With more than 277 million organic views in the first 48 hours, it is now the most-watched trailer in HBO and HBO Max history.The behind-the-scenes special will air on 5 April, months ahead of the show’s planned Christmas premiere. The series, led by Succession writer Francesca Gardiner with direction by Mark Mylod, began its tightly guarded, big-budget production at Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire, England, last July.