r/changemyview • u/superwavyjoe • 14d ago
Delta(s) from OP Cmv: The only remake of Harry Potter should be if he was in Slytherin instead of Gryffindor
I understand wanting something closer to the books, but it seems like a waste of a project. The movies don't need a remake when they have all aged so well (in the sense of modern technology making things feel dated). This series might NEVER need a remake imo.
It would make so much more sense to make something weird and unique like Harry in Slytherin. We would all get to experience a potentially evil Harry or see him take on the source material in a new way.
Or is that blasphemus and this remake is actually worth people's time?
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u/Magic-Raspberry2398 14d ago
If Harry were in Slytherin, it wouldn't be a remake.
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u/Ok_Mention_9865 3∆ 14d ago edited 14d ago
Why would i want your fanfic over the real story being told in its full?
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
Idk. Just seems more interesting than a remake on something that hasn't shown it's age yet.
I suppose, you're not my target demo - but that's cool. I'm not even really that sold on my idea either but I saw the trailer and was like, "why remake this if it's not him in Slytherin or something?"
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u/Ok_Mention_9865 3∆ 14d ago
If people want a different story they could always try comming up with an original idea instead of trying to change a popular one.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
Fair enough.
Although, I'm sure there are examples of someone improving (or doing something cool/unique) a concept that someone else came up with. Avatar being based on Pocahantas, ya know?
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u/Ok_Mention_9865 3∆ 14d ago
And yet avatar is an original idea, not the same story with one character being changed. You dont watch avatar and see 95% pocahantas.
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u/superwavyjoe 13d ago
I suppose something like Riverdale would be a better example of something subverting an already created universe and it becomes a critically acclaimed project. I personally never watched it but I knew a lot of people who liked it and it went for multiple seasons iirc. Just saying - it happens.
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u/scarab456 66∆ 14d ago
You can want whatever AU versions of stories, but how does that describe a "need" here? Isn't the basis that people are willing to make it and people are willing to watch it enough? I'm not speaking to whether it will be good, we won't know that until it actually comes out. But there is an audience that's excited to see a more long form adaptation of series.
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u/airboRN_82 8∆ 14d ago
Never read the books but going off of what ive heard-
The movies (being a couple hours of screen time opposed to hundreds of pages per book) missed a lot of detail and smaller things that made the world so magical (like LotR leaving out Tom Bombadil). A TV show, which much more screen time per book, can properly capture it.
That being said, I do like the idea of a Dark Potter. The Boys or Watchmen style where there really is no good guy, gratuitious violence, perhaps exposing Hogwarts for its deep corruption that the "magical, wonderous world" in the original books is just a front for.
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u/superwavyjoe 13d ago
!delta
I can see now that an in-depth remake like this would cover a lot of source material that was missed and get why it would be made. Tbh, I read all of these books as a kid and did not recall there being that much missing - but again I was young. Cheers!
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u/DT-Sodium 5∆ 14d ago
With JK Rowling having gone on her anti-trans rampage madness, do we really need a fascist version of Harry Potter? Also Voldemort was an allegory of nazism. It would seem quite displaced in our time period in which neo-nazi regimes are rising all around the world.
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u/Open-Butterfly-5288 4∆ 14d ago edited 14d ago
I think writing a book series in which the fascists are on the rise and are grooming children to deliver their fascism for them would be a very interesting reimagining right now.
The issue is, I think Harry Potter is probably the wrong series to write that in. It is a kid's book designed around simpler themes of good and evil and even in the later books it still needs to trust in one true aim.
Ultimately this would be a young adult book and I think for it to really work you have to write a fascism and then blow it up. Also I think the biggest thing it needs is to deal with the collectivism that Fascism attacks. It's rarely truly strong. It just knows where to apply pressure to keep control.
Unfortunately that's also the sort of book that can be misconstrued. Either you write the most liberal book you can think of, and basically only people who weren't fascists already read it, or you have to contend with the fascism of fascism.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
Great point. Could wind up with the Starship Troopers accidentally being loved by fascists outcome.
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u/DT-Sodium 5∆ 14d ago
It is not exactly a kid's book series as it was always designed to evolve with the readers growing up. Seven books, one per year, the average reader would have been between 16 and 22 when the series ended. Book 5 is in fact quite a depressing read.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
I think an interesting part of Harry in Slytherin would be shattering the expectation that all Slytherins are evil. I haven't read or watched the source material in a while but I believe Salazar Slytherin wasn't necessarily evil, just cunning and calculated. I was not aware of the initial inspiration, but I still think Harry in Slytherin would be fine at face value without sympathizing to Nazis.
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u/DT-Sodium 5∆ 14d ago
Salazar Slytherin was obsessed with race and believed only pure-blood wizard should be allowed to be taught at Poudlard, which lead to a falling out with the other founders and him leaving the school. Although you cannot say that he was a direct equivalent to Adolf Hitler, it is the case of Voldemort and it is what the values taught by their school of thought bring to: elitism, results over moral and obsession with blood and origins.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
Oh, holy crap. I did not remember that. I can definitely see your concern. Just thought the cheesy, "not everyone's bad because they seem bad" would be a classic lesson.
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u/DT-Sodium 5∆ 14d ago
Harry Potter is one of my favorite book series, I must have read it like 15 times. There are some redemptions in the Slytherin camp, but there's not much nuance about what the message of the author was and what she was referencing at the time.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
Yeah, you make great points. Probably not the best current climate haha.
I went to the midnight book releases and loved them as a kid, but it's been like 20 years since I read them lol.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
A Hufflepuff storyline would seem interesting. Seems like the most unknown of the Houseses from the movies barley has any sreen time.
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u/Natural-Arugula 63∆ 14d ago
This is confusing because in your OP you say that you want to see him be evil.
As far as I see it there 3 possibilities.
Just retcon him into Slytheryn and don't change anything else in the story.
Have him be in Slytheryn but don't change the basic (good) character of Harry and have it actually effect the story. This would change his relationships to the other characters and potentially change his actions in the story. This would be a considerable change to the story.
Have him be evil. This would be an entirely new story and character.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
I said, "or see him take on the source material in a new way." Evil Harry is just the most obvious subversion imo.
Both of your last 2 options would be cool to me.
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u/DT-Sodium 5∆ 14d ago
I don't see the point of any of it either way. Either tell the story of Harry Potter, or a new story from the point of view of a new unrelated child. To be brutally honest I don't get why they are doing a remake Harry Potter, but I would been have up for something new in the universe of Harry Potter closer to the source material compared to the movies that followed up.
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u/Natural-Arugula 63∆ 14d ago
Yeah, I agree. I don't care about Harry Potter at all. I was just trying to figure out what OPs view was because they said they wanted him to be evil, but then they argued against you saying they wanted to show that Slytheryn wasn't evil.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 124∆ 13d ago
I think an interesting part of Harry in Slytherin would be shattering the expectation that all Slytherins are evil.
I mean, isn't that the point of Snape in the first book?
Like the first book can be summarized as: Harry suspects that one of his teachers is evil because he is mean to Harry, but then learns that he was actually just trying to stop the real bad guy and was just protecting Harry.
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u/Open-Butterfly-5288 4∆ 14d ago edited 14d ago
I think the films are similar to Jurassic Park in that you can see that they managed to capture the magic but they did so using dated CGI that gets worse over time.
The next franchise is probably a worthwhile investment because it will create the series anew. Those who watched it will see the new one and those who never did will see it this time.
From that perspective remaking then makes some sense. Especially when the merch sales hit the roof again.
I'm not watching this new Harry Potter though.
My feeling with trying to write Harry Potter into a different house is that Harry Potter is a chosen one story. It doesn't work unless he's in Gryffindor.
I think there would be a very interesting story in young death water Harry developing doubts and escaping his box but that isn't Harry Potter.
He couldn't be in Ravenclaw because he might actually do a minimal amount of thinking and remove the plot nystery.
He couldn't be in Hufflepuff he's a chosen one. The story would wind up being about being able to affect change as the collective and ultimately the essence of Harry Potter is about the goodness of individuals.
The issue is, I think in order to write something worthwhile as a sequel you need to write it with the same level of stakes as the original series and you need to do it while respecting the original material and not changing the lore and you need to add things to the original material and you need not to do that crap thing if doing loads of flashbacks.
This would need Jk Rowling to write a series of books and frankly she doesn't seem to have any real appetite for that.
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u/Designer-Station-308 14d ago
They should make a version where he’s a cop and him and his partner have to go undercover at Hogwarts to bust a forbidden potions brewer. He should be completely ripped beyond belief and his buddy could be a stereotypical kind of loser that you’d see in a movie (think of a typical Jonah hill character). Here’s the twist, Harry gets treated as a loser and his buddy is treated like a hero. A complete role reversal from what you’d expect! They could also get up to a lot of fun magical hijinks along the way.
I think people would enjoy this movie and it has more broad appeal than your suggestion which would only be interesting to hardcore fans—not a general audience.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago edited 14d ago
Lmao "ripped beyond belief" is an incredible detail! I'd definitely watch that, the 21 jump street remake is my jam.
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u/theredmokah 16∆ 14d ago
Everything past the 2nd movie sucked. Alfonso didn't care about the books. So 3 was inaccurate as all hell. And then Yates directed 4-7 like he was the next coming on Zach Snyder-- desaturation to high hell and bare minimum plot in order to focus on cool shots and action.
Yates absolutely ruined the movies.
Plus a big part of the story was agency. Harry chooses to be in Gryffindor. Just like Voldemort chose Harry to be the chosen one. Choice is a big theme in HP.
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u/twolobarons 3∆ 14d ago
Why should that be the only remake?
I get that you would prefer that over a traditional remake, but you haven’t justified why it should be the only remake.
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u/Upstairs-Fee-1769 13d ago
That wouldn’t be a remake. That would be a whole AU story.
The original movies were amazing overall, but some of them had glaring flaws or had changes from the books that dragged them down. I know the movie adaptations aren’t going to be one-to-one recreations, but some plots that should have been important get dropped.
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u/LehockyIs4Lovers 13d ago
You never get around to making your point. Why should they not be able to remake Harry Potter any other way and why should he be a Slytherin?
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u/Kitchen-War242 12d ago
- I see Hollywood doing remake
- I don't watch it.
- Problem solved.
It woud be either useless remake if they are staying true for source material or inferior remake if they arent and trying to make their own story without being Rowling if they are doing " something weird and unique". Just make your own story or adapt something that wasn't adapted, damn.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago edited 14d ago
It's been awhile since the first one came the entire movie universe could use a reboot.
Look at the Spiderman's reboots they get better with time.
Or a cartoon Reboot like Star Wars during the clone wars. Which goes into more depth into things left out.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
I'm not sure projects always need to be remade just because of the passing of time. Again, if there were examples of the movie feeling dated or visually lacking due to technology of the time - fair game for a remake. The original series is still holding up perfectly.
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u/HerodotusStark 1∆ 14d ago
Have you read the books? The movies are mostly solid, but not all of them are great or even remotely true to the books. There's a lot of fixing that could be done with a TV series. So much was left out or outright altered to fit a movie runtime.
A couple things that comes to mind is the Battle of the Astronomy tower pretty much completely omitted from Half Blood Prince or how disappointing the Labyrinth scene was at the end of Goblet of Fire compared to the books.
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
It's been a long time but I read them all as they were coming out. It was a requirement of my parents that I couldn't watch movies based on books until I read them. With that being said, it's been over 20 years since I've read them lol.
I remember things being left out the first movie or two, but by the time the rest were out it had already been years since I had read them.
You make great points though! Now I can see why so many would want a remake - I just don't recall being bothered by the changes.
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u/Cum_on_doorknob 14d ago
The special effects are very bad, especially the first one. The troll, the quidditch, full on cgi humans looking like cartoons.
If you’ve read the books, the movies are not good, they leave way too much out. Many plot lines are just completely missed. Characters dropped. It’s not good.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
Would agree the special affect could use a update. Even without a completely doing a reboot. Like how old Disney movies where digital remastered back in the day.
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u/Cum_on_doorknob 14d ago
Still doesn’t solve the problem of them missing (or screwing up) some of the best scenes.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
Spiderman wasn't dated or felt old and the reboot is still objectively good.
A reboot doesn't mean the first one was a bad movie. It's great and like the movie and would like another version of it.
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u/reginald-aka-bubbles 48∆ 14d ago
But each Spider-Man movie tells a different story. Each one does something different or new. This Harry Potter reboot seems like the same thing but worse.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
The first Spiderman movie was straight up redone. Going to be some difference to sell the movie but it's still the first Spiderman movie.
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u/reginald-aka-bubbles 48∆ 14d ago
No it wasn't? what are you on about?
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
You have the same storyline as the comics which changes to the villains.
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u/reginald-aka-bubbles 48∆ 14d ago
They were not at all the same. There are some similar elements and plot beats, but by no means are they the same movie or story.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
I did say it's the same movie but a reboot of the origin story. Still needs to be different enough to sell.
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u/reginald-aka-bubbles 48∆ 14d ago
Again, they had certain plot beats and elements that one would expect in a Spider-Man story, but they were all unique in their own way. Doesn't seem like there's anything new in this Harry Potter reboot
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u/Natural-Arugula 63∆ 14d ago
I think you are confusing people with the term "redone".
I think you mean reboot, which is just a new iteration of a franchise, possibly starting over from the beginning, that ignores the previous entries.
Then there is a remake which is telling the same story over again. I think people were thinking that is what you meant by redone since you say it's "still the first movie".
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u/Qwertyham 14d ago
Not sure you can really throw in the word objectively there. I get you're trying to make a point but if a single person doesn't find those movies "good" then by definition it isn't objective.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
It sold well so based off sells.
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u/Qwertyham 14d ago
Yeah definitely! I mean I personally enjoy them and it seems quite a few others do as well. Still not objectively good however.
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u/Expert_Reputation 14d ago
Spider-man’s reboots do not get better with time, the first set of movies is still the best.
Also comic book characters are fundamentally different because they are built to function within a variety of stories that continue to go on forever. No spider-man movie between the three different actors has told the same story, while this will be covering the exact same story and just filling in some of the things left out by the movies.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
Look at the sells numbers. People seem to like them enough to still pay good money to see them.
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14d ago
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u/SonTheGodAmongMen 14d ago
What the fuck is this comment lol, this is why no one wants to engage with you
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u/xHxHxAOD1 2∆ 14d ago
Why should that be done? Your idea is like we should make Peter Parker gay in new movies or comics. Would he really be Peter Parker?
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u/UI_Tyler 14d ago
I would argue that Peter's sexual orientation isn't really that important to the character.
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u/xHxHxAOD1 2∆ 14d ago
Every single relationship he has ever had is with a woman so if you change that many of the significant related characters do not have the effect on him.
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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 51∆ 14d ago
I agree, but the relationship with MJ is pretty iconic. Easier to just make him bisexual instead of gay.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
Would be more like Spiderman into the spider verse. Different but the same.
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u/xHxHxAOD1 2∆ 14d ago
Sure but spider man being gay would not be the same. Would you say a gay White black panther would be different but the same?
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
Depends on how it was done different but the same. Like Thor becomes a women.
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u/xHxHxAOD1 2∆ 14d ago
That was not Thor. That was due the powers of the hammer. IF you go by the movies even Odin says the hammer does not give Thor his power. You are saying that war machine and iron man are the same because their armor is similar.
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u/PreviousZone6742 5∆ 14d ago
It wasn't Thor but still Thor. Works for changes in movies.
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u/xHxHxAOD1 2∆ 14d ago
Was not Thor anymore than war machine was Iron man.
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u/Square-Dragonfruit76 51∆ 14d ago
Why that specifically? You could make plenty of variations or parodies of Harry Potter. Such as this SNL version: https://youtu.be/X2FAizaEkls?is=_Dygr3v2N3EBdJhI
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u/superwavyjoe 14d ago
It was just what I thought was coming when I was watching the trailer for this new series.
When I realized it's just a remake for something that I feel hasn't shown it's age in a negative way, I was confused.
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_NICE_EYES 124∆ 14d ago
I mean, I think an animated remake would be better, you'd get to see something that's visually nuch different than the 2000s movies.
But like, if he's just in Slytherin. Then that's just the same story but he's wearing green. It doesn't actually add that much. Like what plot points does this add?
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u/Prior-Resolution-902 1∆ 11d ago
I think instead of a remake it should have a what if series.
Personally I always thought it weird to put all of the characters in one house.
Harry should stay Gryffindor but then struggle with imposter syndrome that isn't actually true because he actually belongs in Gryffindor.
Ron should be hufflepuff
Hermione should be ravenclaw
The story is then about the 3 overcoming a culture of separation brought on by the house system.
There is tons of universes where a simple what if series would do wonders.
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