Hans Zimmer says Harry Potter TV music will step away from John Williams
Hans Zimmer says he will not try to sound like John Williams on HBO's new Harry Potter series. He says he can't.
Zimmer will write the score, meaning the original music composed for the show, alongside his company Bleeding Fingers Music. In an interview with Collider, he said his work would try to stay as far away as possible from Williams' film music in order to be original.
That approach, he said, comes from respect. Zimmer described following in Williams' footsteps as intimidating, and said plainly that he cannot write like Williams, according to Variety, which reported the Collider interview on 18 September 2026.
Williams was the composer on the first three Harry Potter films released between 2001 and 2004. Zimmer told Collider the HBO reboot needs its own sound, and that the music for the series will be totally different from the original movies.
HBO has ordered the Harry Potter books as a television adaptation. Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers, the composer organisation he co-founded, will create an original new score for the series, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. That series is set to debut in 2027.
The appointment drew a public response from author J.K. Rowling after the news that Zimmer would replace Williams for the HBO version, Collider reported in January. Zimmer is a familiar name in large-scale screen music. He previously scored Zack Snyder's 2013 film Man of Steel.
For viewers, this means new themes when the wizarding story returns to the screen. The television run will not reuse the film sound as its musical base. It will arrive with its own signature.
