John Lithgow was asked about his favorite book from the Harry Potter franchise, and what felt like a fluff question actually became a significant update about Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The series is going to make its release date on the 2026 TV schedule, as filming just wrapped on the first season.
Lithgow was on the red carpet at the Tony Awards, and CBS Mornings caught up with the actor and asked him about his favorite Harry Potter book. That's not the bombshell. What really shook me up was that rather than answer the question, he casually just mentioned production has wrapped on Season 1, meaning we're on track to watch it with an HBO Max subscription this Christmas:
Oh, God. Well, we just finished the very first, and it was thrilling and so much more than I expected because we are doing eight episodes to complete one entire book. The movies only had two hours; we have eight hours. There's much more storytelling to do.
There's a lot of storytelling to get through, and as John Lithgow said above, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone will get much more time to recap Book 1 than the original movie did. The teaser hasn't shown us much more than what we'd seen previously, but as someone who grew up with the books, I'm really hoping we finally get to see Peeves and the other ghosts.
John Lithgow continued his comments, further deflecting the original question, but adding great details about the series. As many guessed, the Harry Potter show will use its extra time to get into a lot of the smaller adventures of the books that the films ended up cutting for time:
We get to run down all those wonderful little off-ramps that are in the plotting of the books. And I think that's going to be the case for the next several seasons.
While there are some key moments left out of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I'd like to think the changes between the show and movies will be more apparent in later books. Personally, I know I'm very excited to see Goblet of Fire revisited, and given the proper time to get into the various competitions, the different wizarding schools, and subplots in between.
I do wonder why John Lithgow dodged the question about his favorite Harry Potter book. He revealed in an interview with Smartless that he was halfway through Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets a while back, so it's possible he hasn't made his way through the entire series.
In the end, maybe it was better he gave a response tied to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone than admit he was still making his way through the books. Whatever his reason was for dodging the question, I'm thrilled to see him play Albus Dumbledore. While he faced some struggles on whether he should play the role or not after disagreeing with author J.K. Rowling's viewpoints on various topics, it'll be great to see his take on an iconic character we've seen many actors play in pop culture.
As mentioned, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is coming to HBO and HBO Max on Christmas. I'm curious to see how many people tune in to watch it in between the holiday festivities, and if it ends up breaking some records on the platform.
