The "Harry Potter" HBO live-action series seems to be taking exactly what many fans have been waiting for. Drawing a clear distinction from the Warner Bros. movie version, the drama version does not modernize the original world, but strives to restore the true 1990s scenes.
HBO has now officially confirmed the direction that many fans have been waiting for: the series will not move the wizarding world to the modern day, but will more closely follow the original timeline. The story begins in 1991 - and this is a setting that the audience can clearly feel.
This is significantly different from the movie version: although the movie also belongs to the 1990s in terms of setting, this is not particularly emphasized in the visual presentation. This "90s positioning" was officially confirmed in the behind-the-scenes documentary "Finding Harry – The Art Behind the Magic" released by HBO on April 5.
According to the internal time setting of the series, Harry Potter was born in 1980 and entered Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the age of 11 - that is, in 1991. While the movie version theoretically follows the same timeline, the character costumes and overall vibe tend to be closer to the 2000s. If HBO follows a similar approach, the entire worldview may appear too modern, thereby weakening the plausibility of some plots in the original work. Especially in the Muggle world, this difference may be more obvious, and this part of the content may also be further emphasized in the series.
For "Harry Potter", a world without smartphones and social media is not only easier to stimulate the audience's nostalgia, but also obviously more relevant to the story itself. Many plots in the original work seemed logical at the time, but if placed in a modern context, they will cause new logical problems. For example, in the second story, Harry, Ron and Hermione travel in Mr. Weasley's flying car - in the 1990s, the worst thing that could happen was to be witnessed; but today, it's hard not to think: Why hasn't anyone uploaded the photo to platforms such as TikTok and gone viral?
Fans on Reddit seem to agree: the mysterious wizarding world seems more believable without smartphones and social media. Many people also believe that the 1990s era setting is more in line with the more retro and mysterious atmosphere of the original work. While there are still some who support a modern adaptation of the show, overall HBO seems to have made the right choice by choosing a '90s setting. But having said that, this show still needs to overcome many other challenges before it can truly win the recognition of fans.
