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Fans can expect plenty of changes in HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter reboot – including the soundtrack.
John Williams gave the first three Harry Potter films some of the franchise’s most recognizable music, including the instantly iconic Hedwig’s Theme. Its celesta melody quickly became the series’ anthem, recurring throughout the films even after Williams stepped away post-Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), when new composers took over.
Harry Potter soundtracks by Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper, and Alexandre Desplat each reshaped Williams’ themes around their own scores, sometimes using Hedwig’s Theme sparingly or in altered form. Its last installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011), went even further, bringing back Williams’ Leaving Hogwarts – which was originally used in the final scene of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) – for the film’s final epilogue.
Since the announcement of HBO’s Harry Potter adaptation, fans have theorized whether it will make use of the melody, similar to how several adaptations of Superman have tweaked Williams’ original score.
However, it seems like the answer is no.
HBO ‘Harry Potter’ Reboot Going in a Different Musical Direction
As previously announced, Hans Zimmer – best known for soundtracking films such as The Lion King (1994), Inception (2010), the Dune series, and several entries in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise – is composing the music for Harry Potter.
The composer recently confirmed that his direction differs from John Williams’.
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Speaking to Collider, he said, “I can’t write like John Williams, but even if I could, I would try to stay away as far as possible and try to be original.”
This isn’t his first time following in Williams’ footsteps – he previously composed the music for Man of Steel (2013), 35 years after Williams composed the theme for Superman (1978). Zimmer explained that he took a similar approach with that film.
“When I was doing ‘Man of Steel,’ which, of course, is Superman, for three months I was running around going, ‘I don’t know. I can’t do this. I can’t do this because it’s John Williams. John Williams is — it’s brilliant! It’s brilliant!'” Zimmer said. “Zack [Snyder, the film’s director] phoned me and said, ‘Can I come down?’ I go, ‘I don’t really have anything,’ and he goes, ‘Well, I’ll be there on Tuesday.’ So I came up with a tune, but I still was incredibly worried about it.”
He added: “Zack just said the simplest thing to me. He said, ‘Hans, it was just a movie. This is just a movie.’ And that was so liberating. It’s just a movie, and my life is all about making music for movies, which I do because I love it. I love the movies, and I love having fun with it.”
Other Changes in ‘Harry Potter’
Of course, the music is far from the only change fans can expect from the Harry Potter reboot.
Since its announcement, HBO has promised that it will approach JK Rowling’s world more faithfully than the original film series (which also suffered from starting production years before Rowling had published the last few books).
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The movies inevitably condensed Rowling’s novels to fit feature runtimes, cutting characters such as Peeves and Winky, trimming storylines involving SPEW and the Marauders, and simplifying major backstories. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), for example, removed several of Dumbledore’s lessons exploring Voldemort’s past, while Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) heavily reduced the Quidditch World Cup and Triwizard Tournament.
The HBO series has considerably more room to work with. Each season is being built around one book, giving the writers more time to explore storylines that were shortened or removed entirely from the films, rather than squeezing hundreds of pages into roughly two hours.
It can also add scenes not included in the book to further flesh out Harry’s world. Judging by early footage and images from the set, which include glimpses of his life in the Muggle world before joining Hogwarts, as well as an on-screen appearance by Nicolas Flamel, the creator of the Philosopher’s Stone.
Peeves will also appear in the series, with Peter Serafinowicz cast as the troublesome Hogwarts poltergeist. His inclusion gives HBO another opportunity to restore material that never made it into the original adaptations.
The series is also leaning harder into the books’ original time period. HBO’s behind-the-scenes special revealed that its costume department has built the show’s Muggle wardrobe specifically around 1991, the year Harry first arrives at Hogwarts in Philosopher’s Stone.
Visually, this is not simply a recreation of the movies either. Production designer Mara LePere-Schloop has developed a new version of Hogwarts, while early images have revealed redesigned Quidditch uniforms, including numbered Gryffindor robes unlike those worn by Harry’s team in the films. The Hogwarts uniform has also received an update.
How do you feel about the Harry Potter reboot not using John Williams’ original theme?
