Opinion
Why I’m unimpressed by the trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu
by Luca Fontana
Wow! HBO has signed Hans Zimmer for Harry Potter
16.1.2026
Translation: Patrik Stainbrook
Hans Zimmer will be scoring the upcoming Harry Potter series. Thrilling news – and slightly unsettling too. Harry Potter already has legendary music. So, all that hype and hope aside, there’s only one question: will this go well?
It’s official: legendary composer Hans Zimmer will handle the music for HBO’s new Harry Potter series. It’ll be crafted in collaboration with composers’ collective Bleeding Fingers Music, which Zimmer cofounded.
Looks like HBO is confidently venturing into new musical territory, detached from the famous movie motifs that film music legend John Williams once coined. For one of the most discussed series productions of the coming years, it’s a bold choice that’s making plenty of noise.
What happens now?
My first thought: wow! Hans Zimmer.
At first, a feeling of amazement. Hans Zimmer. One of the most influential film composers of our time. He doesn’t just write soundtracks, he fills concert halls with feeling. Emotions. Pressure. Gravitas. With The Lion King, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Interstellar and most recently Dune, Zimmer has built a musical monument over the decades that can’t be ignored. His name alone immediately lends weight to a project.
After all the casting discussions and controversies, Harry Potter sporting Hans Zimmer is amazing news. One thing fans can agree on. At last, euphoria instead of constant debate.
But then, after that initial joy, a second thought intervenes.
My second thought: what about John Williams?
Harry Potter isn’t just a movie and book series. Harry Potter has a sound. And that sound has a name, a legendary one: John Williams. To date, no one has won more Oscars than him.
The influence of Williams’ music on that world can hardly be overestimated. Hedwig’s Theme, for example, isn’t just a leitmotif – it is Harry Potter. This mix of childlike wonder, quiet melancholy and magical curiosity has left its mark on an entire generation. In our collective memory. Even when Williams dropped out after the third film, all of his successors (Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper and Alexandre Desplat) tried to basically get as close to him as possible.
No wonder. Hardly anyone has had such a lasting musical influence on cinema as John Williams. He’s created worlds that have grown far beyond individual films. From Star Wars to Superman, Indiana Jones and E.T. to Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List and Harry Potter: Williams gave a melody to the impossible – and perhaps his most important voice to cinema.
Without John Williams, bikes don’t really fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches, nor do men in red capes. There is no Force, dinosaurs do not walk the Earth, […] John, you breathe belief into every film we have made. You take our movies – many of them about our most impossible dreams – and […] you make them real and everlasting for billions and billions of people.
Even in the recent video game Hogwarts Legacy, you couldn’t fully free yourself from Hedwig’s Theme by Williams. That’s how important it is. The theme floats through the music again and again – sometimes openly, sometimes hidden, but never really gone.
And this is where things get interesting.
My third thought: courage to free ourselves
Hans Zimmer isn’t a composer who copies. And he’d be ill-advised to try. His style is different. More grounded. Powerful. Often more rhythmic, more physical. More pressure, more pulse, more boom. So the big question isn’t whether Zimmer can replace John Williams – nobody can – but whether he can find a new sound for this world that works.
A Harry Potter world without Williams, but without his shadow either.
I really hope Zimmer tries just that: something original, something bold. Something that rethinks this world. Because Harry Potter doesn’t just need epicness. It needs that feeling of wonder. That cautious feeling of amazement. A childlike curiosity that lurks around every corner.
If Zimmer manages to combine his typical power with that quiet magic, then something really exciting could emerge. Not a nostalgic look back, but a new sound for a new generation. That’s exactly why, after that first wow and secondary hesitation, I feel one thing above all:
honest excitement.
Header image: Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert
Luca Fontana
Senior Editor
Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.chI write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
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