Harry Potter is getting a new audiobook adaptation
I'm generally reluctant to write about things that have to do with J.K. Rowling these days (ahem), but this strikes me as an interesting thing: Audible and Pottermore have announced that they are partnering up for a full-cast audio adaptation of the entire Harry Potter series, which will launch sometime in 2025.
The project will cover all seven novels in the series, which had previously been narrated by Jim Dale and Stephen Fry (interestingly, Fry's narration is now available in the US via the audiobook platform). The dramatization will be exclusive to Audible, and will feature more than 100 actors to voice the characters, according to Variety. Neither company has announced who'll be voicing the characters, and Variety notes that these adaptations will be "unrelated to the eight Warner Bros. movies chronicling the saga of the boy wizard." That's not a huge surprise, given the principle cast's differing views on trans people to that of Rowling's.
Rowling has spouted some pretty terrible and bad-faith rhetoric about trans people in recent years, which has certainly colored my views on the books and the various products and stories that have come out in recent years. But I do think that it's a notable project. The audio editions of the Harry Potter hold a huge place for the series' fans and have been a huge business for Pottermore and Audible over the years, and we've seen an uptick in publishers re-recording audiobooks with big-name narrators and actors, like Rosamund Pike for The Wheel of Time, Rosalind Chao for The Three-Body Problem, and Andy Serkis, who's run through J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. (I'm waiting on Frank Herbert's estate to redo the Dune novels, scammed narrators notwithstanding.)
I've found these new adaptations to be more than just a marketing gimmick: as the audiobook industry has exploded in popularity in the last decade, listeners and publishers have realized that these are projects that go beyond just reading the words on the page: I've found the audiobooks like Rob Inglis's narration of The Lord of the Rings to be a tedious listen, while Serkis's was far more engaging. Part of that is Serkis's role in Peter Jackson's films, but he's also blessed with a truly engaging voice.
What's interesting about this new Harry Potter project is that the existing audiobooks are pretty well loved by the fans who listened to them, and for many, they are the definitive versions of the stories, whether it's Fry or Dale narrating. Audio dramas are big, complicated affairs, and this strikes me as something that will be an entirely new version of the story for a new generation of fans. I can imagine that this new adaptation will serve somewhat as a new introduction to the original novels in advance of the announced TV adaptation that's in the works for the Max streaming service.
As I noted back then, Audible could face some headwinds because of Rowling's views, although that particular controversy didn't seem to have dampened sales for the recent video game Hogwart's Legacy. I have some doubts about how well controversies that originate on places like Twitter really trickle down into other spaces, but an ambitious project like this feels like it's designed to reach beyond the existing fan base for the novels, and as younger audiences like Gen Z and their successors are a bit more comfortable to shed traditional gender attitudes, Rowling and her attitudes feel like something of a hurtle, even if it might just turn out to be a minor one in the greater scheme of things.
At the present moment, it's not something that I'd be terribly inclined to listen to aside from a curious listen to see what it sounds like. While I enjoyed the books, and I'm not entirely sure what a new adaptation would really bring that would enhance or change my views on them. And of course, Rowling going out of her way to bait people and generally act like a Twitter Poisoned, always-online personality isn't exactly something that'll entice me back.