"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone lent itself well to a two-and-a-half-hour run time in its 2001 adaptation, but when the television adaptation of the novel arrives on HBO next year, showrunner Francesca Gardiner will have stretched J.K. Rowling's children's book into eight episodes, close to one hour each. How is that going to happen? Are we going to watch a Quidditch game play out in real time? Maybe, but mostly what this means is that the writers are going to start making stuff up."
"Lox Pratt, the show's Draco Malfoy, confirmed in an interview that the new show will offer viewers a glimpse into Draco's home life. "With this adaptation, you get to see so much more than the books," Pratt said, adding that we'll also get to see "all the teachers in their little rooms.""
"While expanding the larger world of Potter felt like an inevitability with a run time this significant, those additions run a bit counter to the narrative that this show is going to be "more faithful" than the films. The obligation to stick to the text may feel more apparent in later seasons, when the natural run time of a movie dictated how much of Rowling's behemoth books could be adapted, but these early seasons are going to have to generate material in order to justify their own existence. Which might be fine! Or it might feel like fan fiction. What do the Hogwarts teachers get up to in their "little rooms"? Probably just grade-book maintenance, unless we learn there's a spell for that."
HBO will adapt Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone into eight episodes of about an hour each, stretching the original children's novel for television. The extended runtime will require writers to create new material and expand characters' lives, including scenes of Draco Malfoy's home life and teachers in their private rooms. These additions widen the Potter universe but run contrary to promises of greater fidelity to the source. Later seasons may adhere more closely to the text due to original books' scope, while early seasons must invent content that could either enrich the story or feel like fan fiction.
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