Watch: First Trailer for HBO's Harry Potter TV Series Features Unexpected Surprise
The first footage of HBO's new Harry Potter TV series was released on Wednesday with an official teaser trailer.
The trailer introduced the series' main characters, Harry Potter (Dominic McLaughlin), Hermione Granger (Arabella Stanton) and Ron Weasley (Alastair Stout), as they attend their first school year at Hogwarts. Several key adult characters were also featured in the trailer: Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (John Lithgow), Professor Minerva McGonagall (Janet McTeer), Groundskeeper Hagrid (Nick Frost) and Potions Professor Severus Snape (Paapa Essiedu)
The first season of the show will adapt Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the first book of J.K. Rowling’s iconic seven-novel series.
One major surprise surfaced at the end of this teaser trailer. The first season of the series is now set to debut Christmas 2026, earlier than the previously announced release date in 2027.
Take a look at the first teaser trailer, here:
First trailer for the ‘HARRY POTTER’ series.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 25, 2026
Releasing this Christmas on HBO. pic.twitter.com/X5PPZ3ME46
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO JB Perrette says this upcoming Harry Potter TV adaptation will be “the biggest streaming event in the history of HBO Max and arguably in streaming, period."
Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter in the previously adapted Warner Bros. films, is looking forward to seeing what McLaughlin does with his iconic character.
“I’m sure Dominic is going to be better than me,” Radcliffe said in a recent interview. “I learned as I went. I look back on what I did now with a lot more kindness, and I find it less embarrassing now that I’m older. But I was very much learning how to do it for a long time on Potter.”