Earlier this month, when the company released its quarterly results, Wall Street learned that WBD’s television business was worth $9.1 billion less than previously thought.

The man who delivered the bad news was CEO David Zaslav, who had already come up with the idea of ​​a merger between Discovery and the storied film studio in 2022. He is also the one blamed for WBD’s current problems, which include the loss of television rights to broadcast live NBA games – a very, very heavy blow in the US.

Typically, the average viewer probably doesn’t care whether it’s about mergers and acquisitions, stocks, or profits and losses. Such things are more the stuff of business and finance pages, not the entertainment section. At least until they start having a negative impact on the TV shows and movies that people love.

For those of us who find the business practices of large corporations as mysterious as quantum physics, WBD’s sharp financial decline is hard to comprehend.

We live in an age where it is of paramount importance for the major studios – rightly or wrongly – to own established intellectual property (IP) that is instantly recognizable to the general public and can be plundered again and again for new content.

Disney, for example, owns Marvel, Pixar, Lucasfilm – home of star Wars And Indiana Jones — and 21st Century Fox, the The Simpsons.

But WBD is sitting on its own IP gold mine. The company owns DC, home of the two most iconic characters in comic book history: Batman and Superman.

Next month comes The penguin, a 10-part spin-off from 2022 The Batman, with Colin Farrell as a chubby villain, while a new Superman, Written and directed by James Gunn, coming to theaters next summer.

WBD also owns the rights to the most important JRR Tolkien works: Lord of the rings Novels themselves and all associated characters (Amazons The Rings of Power, only refers to the appendices of the books).

To the untrained eye, everything seems rosy in the WBD garden. But Zaslav, burned by the box office flops that The Flash And Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, was on a feverish slash-and-burn mission.

Almost 1,000 WBD employees have lost their jobs. Several series, including The time traveler’s wife, the Batman spin-off Gotham Knight and the animated Blade Runner: Black Lotus, were deleted.

In a move that infuriated comic book fans, Zaslav dropped the film batgirl, whose production was practically complete, as a tax write-off of $90 million. It is unlikely that this work will ever see the light of day.

But there is one intellectual property that Zaslav hopes can help turn WBD’s fortunes around: Harry Potter.

The sprawling story of the sorcerer’s apprentice will be retold in a series that will run for seven seasons – one dedicated to each book – and span ten years. The cast is all new and has not yet been announced.

The potter Books and movies are a beloved part of millions of people’s childhoods, attracting legions of new fans every year. There was no sign of people clamoring for a reboot.

But what seemed like a risky idea at best suddenly seems to be one of the worst ideas ever. The reason? Harry Potters creator, JK Rowling.

The author’s controversial views on transgender issues, which she tirelessly shares on X, have inspired many potter Fans who claim she has betrayed the message of her own books.

Some are calling for a boycott of the upcoming series, but Rowling has become a toxic person – even if she seems unfazed by the backlash.

Back in 2019, the original Harry, Daniel Radcliffe, who has expressed his disdain for Rowling’s views, predicted that there would be a Harry Potter possibly restart.

“I’m sure there will be another version of it,” he said in an interview with IGN. “It will be interesting to see how long these movies last. Right now it feels like there’s a certain sanctity around them, but that will pass, the shine will wear off eventually.”

Whether the new Harry Potter Whether he will shine or be avoided remains to be seen.