Writer Andy Greenwald has recently joined the Harry Potter writing team alongside Josephine Gardiner and Laura Neal, and the internet is fuming because before being hired he mentioned that he hadn’t read all the books.
“Newly Announced ‘Harry Potter’ TV Writer Andy Greenwald Does Not Like The Idea Of A Rigorous Adaptation Of The Books And
Said He Has Not Read The Books”
“Harry Potter TV Series Writer Doesn’t Like “Rigorous” Adaptations”
Headlines range from suggesting he refuses to read the books, to suggesting that he thinks a faithful adaptation isn’t a good idea.
Here is the full transcript of his comments about the Harry Potter book series, from the podcast The Watch in February, eight months before being hired.
[The Harry Potter Books] are really, really rich and they are very long books especially later in the series. People adore them. And successive generations are discovering them and loving them every day… The stores are packed everywhere they are in the country and around the world. People are buying the chocolate frogs and the hats and the owls, all of it. You can monetise almost every single aspect of it. And they kind of have.
So the idea of an incredibly rigorous text-to-screen adaptation is, I think, probably a safe bet to be a success.
If something is trumpeting its absolute rocksteady faithfulness, I think the pleasures that can be derived from that are probably not going to be for me because I didn’t read all the books. I read them to my older daughter until she could read them for herself and then she dusted me.
“And I think maybe there’s some other creative possibilities within this world, but J.K. Rowling controls all of it and is not going to let anyone else come play with her toys. And that’s her right and is obviously very profitable for her. So that’s what we get.”
Greenwald is discussing the TV series as a potential viewer, and explaining that wouldn’t necessarily appreciate the faithfulness to the books since he hasn’t read them all.
Greenwald’s perspective has been mischaracterised in recent headlines about his involvement with the TV series. Many media outlets tend to focus on controversy, as negative emotions often drive more engagement through comments and clicks.
It remains unclear whether Greenwald has read the series in full since the announcement of his hiring last week.