Chris Columbus criticizes HBO’s “Harry Potter” series-especially of the new Hagrid.
The director of the first two “Harry Potter” films, Chris Columbus, has commented critically about the upcoming HBO series on the adventures of the famous magic student. The series, whose first season is to start in early 2027, wants to tell the story from JK Rowling’s seven books over seven seasons. More detailed than the movies, favors the series format: a season per book.
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Criticism of Hagrid’s look
Columbus, who staged the first two films “Harry Potter and the Stone of the Weisen” (2001) and “The Chamber of Terror” (2002), commented on the first pictures of the new series in the Podcast “The Rest is Entertainment”. Especially the representation of Hagrid, played by Nick Frost, noticed: “He is wearing exactly the same costume that we designed for Hagrid. Some of me thought: ‘What’s the whole?’ I thought that the costumes and everything else would be different, but it’s more or less the same. “
Nick Frost as Hagrid:
First look at nick frost as hagrid in the ‘Harry Potter’ TV Series. pic.twitter.com/nykkkxfrlfx
– Discussing film (@discussing film) July 15, 2025
No jealousy, but curiosity
Despite the criticism, Columbus emphasized that he was not jealous. “It’s time to move on,” said the 66-year-old. He is proud of the first films in which he was involved and find it exciting to see how the new series implements the old elements. He was particularly interested in the figure Peeves, which was cut away in the first films, since the implementation via CGI was not satisfactory at the time. On the controversy around JK Rowling and her hostile statements, Columbus said that he separated between the artist and work: “I don’t agree with her statements and it is sad what happened.”
View into the future
The HBO series wants to close the gaps from the films and take details from the books more into account. First set photos, including a scene with Nick Frost as Hagrid and Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, recently appeared and were published by “People”.
Columbus itself is currently concentrating on other projects, including the Netflix crime comedy “The Thursday Murder Club”, which starts on August 28, 2025.