7 things we learned about the new Harry Potter TV series from Finding Harry: The Craft Behind The Magic

Released on HBO Max over the weekend, Finding Harry: The Craft Behind The Magic is a 30-minute special which showcases the work which has gone into the series so far.

From casting to creatures, set design and more, the work each department has put into shaping the Wizarding World for a new generation gets its chance in the spotlight ahead of the show’s release.

Here are 7 key takeaways from the series, fans need to know.

1. HBO’s Harry Potter is a period drama

Following first look images being shared as well as the first trailer for the show, it has now officially been confirmed that the first season of Harry Potter will be set in 1991.

Costume designer Holly Waddington spoke about how the department had been hard at work researching the time period to make sure that the muggles would be wearing period-accurate clothing by going through various vintage sales and so on.

This led them to focusing on a colder, pastel based colour palette for those who are non-magical which is largely built around synthetic fibres such as shell suits, with the complete opposite approach for the Wizarding World of rich, natural fibres.

Waddington said: “Our uniforms are all made of British wool, organic cotton, shell buttons, wooden buttons, Scottish tartan. Natural cloth is something that is almost rare, it’s quite a radical act just to wear a jumper that’s made of sheep’s wool, even though we live in a country that’s like full of sheep.”

2. More than 40,000 children auditioned to be Harry Potter

The upcoming Harry Potter reboot has some big shoes to fill. Consequently, so do all of its young stars. As such, casting directors Emily Brockman and Lucy Bevan had tens of thousands of auditions to sift through to find the perfect performers for each role.

Discussing the casting process in the special, Brockman said: “We stopped counting at 40,000.”

Bevan continued: “Yeah. It wasn’t a good use of our time at that point to count, but we watched all of them.”

To ensure that children from around the UK could have a chance, the first round of auditions were submitted online. From there, in person casting took place around the country, starting with the main three youngsters: Harry, Hermione and Ron.

Alastair Stout, who was cast as Ron, was described as “funny and charming” during his audition in Manchester, while Arabella Stanton - Hermione - was a standout from London auditions due to her both playful and serious nature.

The directors found Harry in Scottish actor Dominic McLaughlin when he auditioned in Glasgow.

3. Scottish star Dominic McLaughlin was cast after reading his own poem

Brockman and Bevan said that their Harry had to be an “incredible actor, age ten”, who was able to play a child sceptical of the adult world, who was “Artful Dodger, not Oliver Twist”.

These “many different qualities” were key to finding the right actor in McLaughlin.

Describing his audition, Bevan said: “Dominic came in and his piece was a poem about his weekend that he’d written himself, and it was rhyming and we thought, ‘he’s so interesting’.”

Finding Harry: The Craft Behind The Magic then showed a clip of McLaughlin reciting a poem he’d written titled “My Weekend”.

The pair were impressed by his “quiet confidence in himself”.

4. The Harry Potter trio already ‘adore’ each other

One of several performers to appear in the HBO special, American actor John Lithgow couldn’t help but mention that the chemistry between Harry, Ron and Hermione was already present and accounted for.

Speaking to the camera, he said they were “an amazing ensemble that adores each other”.

Audiences were able to catch a glimpse of this themselves from the variety of behind-the-scenes footage which appears.

5. New TV show will dive deeper into the world of Harry Potter

It was very clear throughout the HBO special that there will be a renewed focus on everything we didn’t see in the films. Fans already suspected it to be the case, especially considering certain characters such as Professor Binns, Madam Malkins and the Flamels have all been cast for season one.

The production team for the reboot reaffirm this belief in the special. Production Designer Mara LePere-Schloop said: “It’s just a designer’s dream to play in a sandbox that’s this big.”

She continued: “We are adding a level of world-building that is even beyond what the audience is familiar with.”

While it is sure to be clearer in the show itself, the behind-the-scenes look at the huge sets reveals a number of shopfronts and references which will be undoubtedly recognisable to fans of the books.

The unique and somewhat unnatural architecture of the universe has been reimagined for both new and returning audiences, with the huge connected sets showcased in the special.

We can see the Leaky Cauldron and Diagon Alley, as well as the outside of shopfronts from the books such as Eeylops Owl Emporium, Quality Qudditch Supplies, Ollivanders and more.

While there are some clear differences from what we’re already used to, it’s worth noting that Diagon Alley does still resemble its Edinburgh inspiration.

In addition, all of these huge sets are connected which will presumably help the HBO series build the universe in a very different way from the films.

6. The HBO Harry Potter show has serious long-term ambitions

While obviously nothing is confirmed yet, one thing that is abundantly clear in the special is that the showrunners behind HBO’s Harry Potter series have a clear long-term vision.

There were multiple references from various department heads and actors about what the future could possibly hold - and their potential role in it. For example, Lithgow is taking on the role of Headmaster Dumbledore at 80 years old. According to the actor, his involvement in the series is likely to conclude when he is around 88.

Towards the end of the special, he references this: “They’re gonna grow up in this. And I’m gonna grow old with them.”

Janet McTeer, who takes over as Professor McGonagall, agreed. She said: “Theoretically we could be working for many years together and they’ll be young adults by then.

“We want them to grow up thinking ‘wow, it might have been hard, it might have been difficult, it might have been tiring, but boy, it was good and so glad I did it. It was so exciting to be a part of it.”’

Paapa Essiedu, who will play Professor Snape, said: “I’m really excited to see how they grow and how their artistry grows and what kind of people they grow into.”

During the section, many clips of the actors playing students at Hogwarts are shown, whether that’s them exploring the sets of playing around together. With the special, HBO is signalling its intent for the reboot series to continue on for many years to come.

7. Practical magic key to creating series

If it wasn’t already obvious, there is a huge amount of attention paid to all the small details which make up HBO’s Harry Potter series and a focus on practical effects, from legacy talents following in the footsteps of their family to work on the project, to ensuring that the kids involved have physical props to work with.

The production has been built around the theme of nature to reflect the differences between the Wizarding World and that of muggles, while the behind-the-scenes elements of the show take full advantage of modern technology.

For example, John Nolan - who is the Creature Effects Design Supervisor - worked on the third and fourth Harry Potter films as a trainee 25 years before he worked on the new HBO series.

Part of this role is supervising the creation of incredibly realistic animatronic animals, from owls to rats, and even flobberworms. The attention to detail becomes clear here, with the behind-the-scenes look revealing that ten owls were created for the show with each individual owl requiring around 36,000 feathers to be placed and glued - by hand.

There’s then the process of creating an animatronic version of Ron’s rat Scabbers, who obviously plays a key role in the Harry Potter series. Nolan showcases how the creature works for the cameras, stating their their intention is to help the performance of the young actors - before showing of a version of the rat which bites.

You can watch the Finding Harry: The Craft Behind The Magic on HBO Max.