Warner Bros. Discovery's David Zaslav Has His Sights Set On More Harry Potter Movies
Ever since the merger that created Warner Bros. Discover, there have been a lot of maneuvers made by CEO David Zaslav, and not all of them have been exactly popular. In August, the company made the bizarre cost-cutting decision to permanently shelve the "Batgirl" movie despite the film already being well on its way to being finished and costing a reported $70 million (per the New York Post). Still, Warner Bros. Discovery has a lot of intellectual properties with which to one day turn a profit, such as the rest of the DC Extended Universe and, somehow, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter franchise.
The DC Universe recently got a nice boost to morale when it announced that James Gunn and Peter Safran would be co-heading DC Studios, according to The Hollywood Reporter. However, the Wizarding World has struggled since the days of the "Harry Potter" films. The latest "Fantastic Beasts" movie, "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore," only grossed $400 million worldwide, becoming the lowest-grossing entry in the entire franchise (per The Numbers). Still, it appears as if Zaslav is still committed to bringing more "Harry Potter" films to life.
Warner Bros. Discovery's David Zaslav is determined to find more Harry Potter stories to tell
During a recent investor meeting (per The Hollywood Reporter), Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made it very clear that he intends to keep making films based on some of the company's most popular franchises. Obviously, that included continuing with their superhero-centered DC films, but he also hinted at the possibility of making more "Harry Potter" movies if he could make it happen.
"We're going to focus on franchises," Zaslav reportedly said. "We haven't had a Superman movie in 13 years. We haven't done a Harry Potter in 15 years. The DC movies and the Harry Potter movies provided a lot of the profits for Warner Bros. ... over the past 25 years." Zaslav again mentioned "Harry Potter" in the meeting, saying he would like to see if there's anything that they can do with J.K. Rowling and "Harry Potter" in the future.
Considering the lack of outright financial success for the "Fantastic Beasts" films, this is a surprising move. This is especially compounded by the endless controversies surrounding Rowling and her statements regarding transgender people (via Glamour), but from the sounds of things, Zaslav wants to make something happen with the actual characters from "Harry Potter." Whether or not that can actually work is anyone's guess, but if enough money is thrown around, it's definitely not outside the realm of possibility. Either way, it seems as if Warner Bros. Discovery is far from being done with the Wizarding World franchise.