No, you are not imagining issues: In the present day’s movies and TV exhibits actually do look completely different, and never in a great way. As famous within the viral hit YouTube video essay “Why Films Simply Do not Really feel ‘Actual’ Anymore,” this may be attributed to quite a lot of components. For instance, numerous the horrible CGI you’ve got undoubtedly observed currently stems from overworked visible results artists being compelled to satisfy unrealistic deadlines. Maybe greater than something, although, trendy big-budget initiatives are inclined to keep away from dramatic shade grading in favor of flatter and murkier visuals. It may be a artistic selection, however that is too usually completed for causes which can be far much less defendable.
Enter HBO’s “Harry Potter and the Thinker’s Stone,” because it’s formally titled. The primary trailer for the “Harry Potter” reboot TV sequence has arrived, and followers have been fast to level out that the imagery contained therein is noticeably missing on the subject of the whimsical colours and sharp lighting of director Chris Columbus’ 2001 movie of the identical title (whose title was localized stateside as “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”). “A Contemporary Breath of TV” podcast host Ayana Monique properly summed that sentiment up by utilizing a gif of Ken Leung’s Eric Tao on “Business” (one other HBO present, fittingly) gesturing “no” whereas commenting on “the colour grading of the ‘Harry Potter’ reboot” on Twitter/X. The YouTube video creator “EndymionTV” equally questioned this on the social media platform, writing, “Why is the brand new ‘Harry Potter’ so darkish? The place’s the whimsical shade?”
They’re removed from the one ones who really feel that manner. As Twitter/X person “abby” put it:
“[T]he world of ‘[H]arry [P]otter’ is so magical and kooky, and you’ll’t even give it any shade … ? [S]omeone please clarify what [H]ollywood’s difficulty is with shade grading please??”
Wizarding World fans aren’t precisely loving the Harry Potter TV reboot’s darker visuals
To not maintain piling on, however the “Harry Potter” TV present trailer roughly confirmed our greatest fears concerning the sequence … and by that we imply it principally seems to be like an uncanny retread of the “Harry Potter” film diversifications that got here out earlier than it. Then there’s the truth that Wizarding World creator and “Harry Potter” TV present government producer Joanne “J.Okay.” Rowling has a well-documented historical past of denigrating the transgender neighborhood, on prime of utilizing the wealth she’s amassed from this franchise to immediately fund anti-trans organizations. Add it up, and it is no surprise this venture is as deeply controversial as it’s.
And but, despite all that, it appears everybody lastly agrees on one thing: This sucker seems to be manner too dang darkish (actually). Even Pop Tradition Disaster host Brett Dasovic, who seems a bit extra upbeat on the “Harry Potter” reboot sequence than others, has admitted there’s one thing to this critique. Certainly, in a put up on Twitter/X, Dasovic described the colour grading at “the citadel” (i.e. the world well-known Hogwarts Faculty of Witchcraft and Wizardry) as feeling like “traditional ‘Harry Potter,'” however acknowledged that the “washed out blue of the colour grading all over the place else feels depressingly trendy.”
Evaluate that to Twitter/X person “Samantha Josephine Stockings,” who argued the “present development in lighting and color grading” embraced by the “Harry Potter” TV present “needs to be thought-about a criminal offense in opposition to humanity.” If nothing else, this darker and grittier visible model lends credence to the concept this sequence is focusing on millennials greater than Gen Z or Alpha (aka the subsequent era of cinephiles), and that appears like a questionable choice at finest.
HBO’s “Harry Potter” sequence will premiere round Christmas 2026.
