‘Harry Potter’ Series Narrows Writer Search With ‘Succession’s Francesca Gardiner Entering The Fray

EXCLUSIVE: Things are heating up at Hogwarts.

The Harry Potter television series is closer to naming its creative leader as Deadline understands that the shortlist is now down to three names.

We hear that Succession writer Francesca Gardiner is now among the finalists to score the job of adapting JK Rowling’s books for the Max streaming platform. It’s understood that Gardiner is now one of three writers currently being considered to lead Harry and his pals on the small screen.

A decision is expected soon. Max and Warner Bros. Television declined to comment.

Gardiner has emerged after Deadline revealed last month that there were four other writers in contention: Martha Hillier, Kathleen Jordan, Tom Moran and Michael Lesslie. It’s not clear which of these writers are still involved.

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.

This group of writers were commissioned by Max to create pitches for a series reflecting their take on the IP. Deadline understands that there may also be an opportunity for more than one of these writers to be involved, and that Max is open to the possibility of developing more than one idea based on Harry Potter.

Rowling is understood to be involved in this pitching process.

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.