Warner Bros. Found Its New Harry Potter, Bought the Rights to Adapt It Into Movies

Summary:

• The Harry Potter movies were Warner Bros’ gold mine, but after the original series finale, the company had little to no luck with the IP.
• WB recently bought adaptation rights for The Keeper Of The Lost Cities, a bestselling young adult fantasy book series by Shannon Messenger.
• The Keeper Of The Lost Cities follows a young elf who joins a magical academy after living with humans for most of her mundane life.

For the first decade of the 21st century, the Harry Potter movie franchise was Warner Bros’ bread and butter. The last film hit the theaters in 2011, and since then, the company has been severely lacking another magical young adult franchise of the same scale — and now, over a dozen years later, they might finally be onto something. It looks like Warner Bros. has found its new Harry Potter, after all!

Harry Potter Gold Mine Has Dried Out

The Harry Potter franchise was fiercely strong, performing at the box office and in fans’ hearts and making Warner Bros. one happy company. But after the series’ finale, its next attempt at luring the people into the Wizarding World was nothing short of disastrous: the Fantastic Beasts movies are notorious just by name, and if anything, they upset far more fans than they got excited.

Now, it’s HBO’s turn to play wizarding chess and race on flying brooms: in 2026, a brand-new Harry Potter TV show will premiere on Max. WB was virtually left out with no galleons to collect, so the company needed a new Big Thing — a franchise that could go on for a decade or more without drying out. Young Adult is always the best bet with these things, and it looks like Warner Bros. has settled on an IP they want.

What’ll Become WB’s New Harry Potter?

Shannon Messenger’s New York Times bestseller book series The Keeper Of The Lost Cities follows a young elf called Sophie who, after being part of the human world for years, is suddenly taken to the Lost Cities — a magical place where other races live freely and in harmony. There, she joins a wizarding academy, but as she soon learns, many dark schemes are hiding behind its peaceful facade.

Warner Bros. recently bought the rights to adapt The Keeper Of The Lost Cities into movies, securing a new highly popular franchise: Shannon Messenger’s book series has nine novels and counting, and they have sold for over 7M copies in total. The books already have a vast fan base, and it’s easy to see these movies becoming the new big thing for the new generation of young wizards.

Source: Deadline