{"id":352389,"date":"2026-03-28T15:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T15:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/352389\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T15:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T15:06:11","slug":"harry-potter-tv-show-trailer-becomes-most-watched-in-hbo-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/352389\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Potter TV show trailer becomes most-watched in HBO history"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The first look trailer <\/a>for the new Harry Potter TV adaptation has already broken records for HBO.<\/p>\n

After its release earlier this week, the teaser clip, which offered a first glance at newcomer Dominic McLaughlin as the boy wizard, notched up 277 million organic views across platforms in its first 48 hours online.<\/p>\n

This made the promo video the most watched trailer in HBO and streamer HBO Max\u2019s history, exceeding the previous record by more than double according to Deadline.<\/p>\n

The eight episode series is an adaptation of JK Rowling\u2019s first Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone.<\/p>\n

The 2001 movie version of the 1997 book made Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe and his co-stars Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) into international stars. <\/p>\n

\"DominicDominic McLaughlin will star as the boy wizard in the series (HBO Max)<\/p>\n

The two-minute trailer for the show, which will be released in December 2026, also gave a first glimpse at the new stars taking on iconic characters, such as John Lithgow as Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, Nick Frost as gamekeeper and confidante Rubeus Hagrid and Paapa Essiedu as potions teacher \u2013 and Harry\u2019s longtime foe \u2013 Professor Snape.<\/p>\n

It also introduced viewers to Arabella Stanton as Hermione and Alastair Stout as Ron. <\/p>\n

\"PaapaPaapa Essiedu as Severus Snape in ‘Harry Potter’ (HBO)<\/p>\n

The show has attracted backlash<\/a> since it was announced back in 2021. Author Rowling has repeatedly made controversial comments about the transgender community, and some members of the new cast have distanced themselves from her views. <\/p>\n

Lithgow recently revealed that he considered quitting the project over the backlash, and clarified that he disagrees<\/a> with Rowling\u2019s views on transgender rights, while Frost has said that the author is \u201callowed her opinion and I\u2019m allowed mine \u2013 they just don\u2019t align in any way, shape or form\u201d. <\/p>\n

Earlier this week, HBO CEO Casey Bloys confirmed that the production has a \u201cserious security team\u201d<\/a> after Essiedu revealed that he had received racist death threats following his casting as Snape. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith all actors on any kind of big IP shows \u2013 and this is obviously one of those where you\u2019ve got, you know, passionate fans, people with a lot of opinions \u2013 it can get scary in places,\u201d Bloys said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo for any show like that, we anticipated it and tried to have training, you know, best practices in terms of social media and how to handle it,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd obviously, we\u2019ve got a serious security team. So unfortunately, it was something that we thought might happen and we just try to be as careful as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":352390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-352389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/352390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}