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HBO has announced plans to launch a major documentary charting the making of its big budget new Harry Potter TV series.
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic will begin streaming on HBO Max from this Sunday, April 5, at 3pm Eastern, 12pm Pacific or 8pm in the UK. A trailer for the documentary released today, meanwhile, gives a sense of what to expect — with a look at more of the series’ sets and interviews with key cast members.
Clips seen in today’s trailer show fresh looks at Hagrid leading students into the Great Hall for the first time, as well as behind-the-scenes footage revealing what looks like Snape’s potions dungeon, plus the construction of an animatronic owl. There’s a glimpse at Diagon Alley, which fans recently saw in more detail via a major set leak. The scale and budget of the production are also made clear — something the streamer has recently commented on, when admitting it was committing to a level of financial investment it normally wouldn’t make in order to film the full Harry Potter story over the next decade.
An exclusive look inside the HARRY POTTER TV series is coming to HBO! 🤩
Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic is streaming April 5 on HBO Max
D-3 🔥 pic.twitter.com/pfZ2I3sTWz
— Wizarding World Direct (@WW_Direct) April 2, 2026
“The Harry Potter stories are this extraordinary phenomenon,” states John Lithgow, who has taken on the mantle of Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore. “To reimagine the Harry Potter canon, to let it breathe, we get to enact all the things you know are going on in the wings, but you don’t see them.”
Here, Lithgow is referring to the fact that HBO’s new Harry Potter adaptation will include scenes based on events referenced but not explicitly seen in the original novels (or the later films, which were forced to cut down the series’ story to fit a traditional movie runtime).
Last year, fans spotted filming that featured Lithgow’s Dumbledore spending time with Nicolas Flamel — something referenced in the books but not actually shown, since the saga essentially follows the actions of Harry himself, with only a handful of chapters across the entire series without him present.
We’ve subsequently learned of other such scenes set to feature in the series, too, such as a glimpse at Draco Malfoy’s home life, and a scene where Hermione receives her Hogwarts acceptance letter. The series will also likely benefit from having been created in a world where the books are now complete — something that wasn’t the case for the previous movies. Famously, the films had to course correct during production when they were planning to leave out elements that author J.K. Rowling was planning to draw from in the series’ final then-unpublished final books.
For HBO, the documentary is also a canny move — as it will likely encourage several Harry Potter fans who aren’t yet subscribers to sign up to the service now, rather than wait for the series to begin streaming later this year.
“It’s been 25 years since audiences first walked the hallowed halls of Hogwarts,” reads a description of the documentary. “Now, this exclusive special offers 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 J.K. 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. With appearances from key cast members including John Lithgow, Janet McTeer, and Paapa Essiedu, and narrated by Nick Frost, Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic explores the exciting new era of one of the most enduring stories of our time.”
Last month, HBO announced that it would begin releasing episodes this Christmas, with the show’s eight-episode first season set to conclude in early 2027. After that, though, there’s concern from Harry Potter fans over how long it will take for the series to complete the saga’s story. HBO boss Casey Bloys has said he wanted the show to “not have a huge gap” between seasons — but has admitted that episodes won’t be released annually, and its second year of production is still at the script stage. Indeed, Bloys has previously said the series would likely launch in a pattern similar to House of the Dragon and The Last of Us due to its complex, effects-heavy nature — something that could mean its final episodes are released in the early 2040s.
Image credit: HBO.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
