The first trailer for HBO’s Harry Potter series has just dropped and people are finding it less than magical – 21 hilarious reactions

Unless you’ve spent the last few years living in a cupboard under the stairs, you’ll know that HBO has been busy working away on a television adaptation of the Harry Potter books which is due to be released this Christmas.

You’ll probably also know that lots of people have been asking one question in unison: why? The original film series still holds up very well, so do audiences really need a TV series that looks uncannily similar?

Yesterday, fans and hatewatchers got their first taste of what to expect from the show as the first teaser trailer was finally dropped. Watch it for yourself below, but maybe turn up your screen’s brightness a few levels beforehand:

First trailer for the ‘HARRY POTTER’ series.

Releasing this Christmas on HBO. pic.twitter.com/X5PPZ3ME46

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) March 25, 2026

It doesn’t seem that people have been won over though, with everything from the colours to the production being criticised. Here are some of the top reactions from sceptical viewers…

1.

against all odds, I was fully unprepared for just how off-putting and uncomfortable this would be to watch. something about seeing such a classically-crafted, iconic film series translated into the aesthetics of a modern HBO prestige streamer show just feels uncanny valley wrong. https://t.co/TFncTHK85N

— Georgia Coley (@artwithinpod) March 25, 2026

2.

Just for comparison’s sake, this is what was released 25 years ago as the first ever teaser for Harry Potter. https://t.co/Me4gu99udb pic.twitter.com/VT1Q4uoOUS

— Ankit Jhunjhunwala (@fuzzyyarns) March 25, 2026

3.

why have they added an adolescence colour grade to it?? does anyone remember COLOUR https://t.co/MxdwmC8R6j pic.twitter.com/AlQa48Q8vp

— Frank (@FrankFWJH) March 25, 2026

4.

Making Chris Colombus look like Scorsese https://t.co/piH0qkGpqY

— Jo🌺🎬 (@Goldxn_Violin) March 25, 2026

5.

you can really see how shackled to the films this has to be in terms of set design because of the theme parks. https://t.co/elyKmLqftq

— claira curtis (@clairacurtis) March 25, 2026

6.

They copied and pasted the movie, used a digital tool that makes every actor look more bland, reduced brightness by 75% and replaced the iconic score with generic slop. Brilliant work everyone https://t.co/sPrUDQUUqx

— Tom Zohar (@TomZohar) March 25, 2026

7.

Even setting aside the ethical issues surrounding this project, there is just no imaginable scenario where I’d rather watch this over the movie that was shot by John Seale and scored by John Williams with production design that looked like this. Get the fuck outta here. https://t.co/PMc1w8aSqK pic.twitter.com/hWwvbhjWG4

— Barto (@bartonovopolis) March 25, 2026

8.

the uncanny valley of the aesthetics remaining largely the same with minor changes and then having mostly actors who look, again, very similar to the predecessors makes this feel like ai. like i know it’s not ai but it feels like it. does this make sense to anyone else https://t.co/OEiY7viXMQ

— neelam! (@samiramohans) March 25, 2026

9.

how smart to make it look terrible on purpose to appeal to their target demographic of idiots with no taste https://t.co/5aDgu6n742

— Arin Hanson (@egoraptor) March 26, 2026

10.

Kinda fascinating seeing a filmed version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone that’s jumped to the darker more “realistic” Prisoner of Azkaban aesthetic https://t.co/0mCj2wk0N6

— ViewerAnon (@ViewerAnon) March 25, 2026