‘Harry Potter’ Series Closing In On Writer As Names Of The 3 Finalists Emerge

EXCLUSIVE: And then there were three. As Deadline reported exclusively earlier this month, the field of writers in the running to adapt JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books into a live-action series for Max has been narrowed down to three finalists. We can now reveal their names — according to sources, they are Francesca Gardiner, Tom Moran and Kathleen Jordan. The trio will be able to hone in on their pitches for the next couple of months, with a decision on who gets the job expected in June, we hear. As Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav announced last week, the Harry Potter series is slated to debut on Max in 2026.

Reps for Max and the studio behind the series, Warner Bros. Television, declined to comment.

Gardiner, Moran and Jordan are among the names of writers in contention reported exclusively by Deadline over the past month.

The extensive search started off by Max and WBTV’s teams, led by Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, and Warner Bros. TV Group Chairman Channing Dungey, inviting TV and film scribes to present their vision for a Harry Potter TV series. The preliminary selection went through one round in Los Angeles, followed by a second round in the London. Rowling has been involved in the process.

“I was in London a few weeks ago with Casey and Channing, and we spent some real time with JK and her team,” Zaslav said on the WBD earnings call last week. “Both sides just thrilled to be reigniting this franchise. Our conversations were great.”

Deadline understands that there may also be an opportunity for more than one of the selected writers to be involved, and that Max is open to the possibility of developing more than one idea based on Harry Potter.

Gardiner was a consulting producer on Seasons 3 and 4 of HBO’s Succession. Before working on the Jesse Armstrong creation, she was an exec producer of HBO and BBC fantasy co-production His Dark Materials and was a co-exec producer of AMC’s Killing Eve. She has also written on shows including Starz’s The Rook and Amazon’s The Man In The High Castle.

Moran is a British writer who created Amazon series The Devil’s Hour, which starred Peter Capaldi. He also worked on Amazon sci-fi series The Feed and Rob Lowe cop drama Wild Bill.

Jordan created the Netflix series Teenage Bounty Hunters, which was exec produced by Jenji Kohan. Jordan is also working with the Orange Is the New Black creator on another Netflix series, The Decameron.

The Harry Potter series will be produced by Brontë Film and TV, the production company chaired by Rowling’s agent Neil Blair, and Warner Bros Television. The pair will exec produce with Brontë CEO Ruth Kenley-Letts and David Heyman, who produced the movies, was in talks to exec produce.

Rowling’s Wizarding World, spawned from her seven bestselling Harry Potter books at 600 million copies worldwide, spans retail stores, theme parks, a global stage play and a $7.7 billion global-grossing feature franchise as well as the $1.8 billion-grossing spinoff Fantastic Beasts movies.