Warner Bros.’ highly anticipated Harry Potter TV series is facing legal challenges thanks to a pending lawsuit filed by Sky Group.
Despite already having a successful franchise with eight movies, HBO and Warner Bros. are actively developing this new Harry Potter series.
The project is still in the early stages, with a recent casting call for major characters, but it seems the studios will have to navigate legal waters before production even begins.
Sky Group, a long-time distributor for Warner Bros. in the UK, initiated the lawsuit on September 27, alleging that the studio is “breaching their agreement by refusing to cooperate on the upcoming Harry Potter TV series,” according to Variety.
The lawsuit was filed in a federal court in New York and asserts that Warner Bros. was “obligated to offer four Max series per year to be co-financed and co-produced by Sky and distributed exclusively to Sky viewers in the UK and other European territories.”
According to the legal filings, Warner Bros. has allegedly tried to sidestep Sky Group to eliminate their involvement with the highly anticipated show.
“Warner’s rationale for refusing to fulfill its obligations to Sky could not be more evident,” the lawsuit states. “Warner has opted to retain the Harry Potter Series for itself and make this blockbuster series central to its Max rollout in Europe.”
The complaint also claims that Warner Bros. deliberately kept Sky Group uninformed in a bid to let their contract expire in 2025, while the studio plans to launch Max, its HBO-affiliated streaming service, throughout the UK in 2026, coinciding with the expected premiere of the Harry Potter series.
Sky Group noted that Warner Bros. executives claimed the series had not been “ordered,” even though the company had publicly indicated intentions to progress with the series in April 2023, supported by numerous announcements over the past year related to casting and the creative team.
A spokesperson for Warner Bros. addressed these allegations in a statement obtained by Variety, describing the lawsuit as “a baseless attempt by Sky and Comcast to try and gain leverage.”
The statement further asserted, “WBD will vigorously defend itself against this unfounded lawsuit as we continue our plans to launch Max, featuring the new HBO Harry Potter series, in the UK and other European markets in 2026.”
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