Harry Potter fans already have a date locked in this December with the launch of the reboot series on HBO. And since the announcement, there’s been plenty of speculation about what exactly to expect from this new version. The trailer for Season 1 has already been released and clearly confirms it will adapt Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, meaning the story starts with a regular kid discovering there’s a whole world hidden from his reality. And just that already puts the series in a very interesting position, because the early episodes will have to balance worldbuilding, setting up rules, and still keep the pacing of a story everyone already knows. That’s not an easy task.
And when you think about that and start feeling nostalgic for the vibe only the beginning of this story can bring, you might look for ways to get back into that mood somewhere else. Which naturally leads to the question: is there any way to get into that mindset before December? The answer is yes. Here are some shows you can watch to slowly ease yourself back into that kind of world ahead of the Harry Potter series.
Harry Potter is very much about the pleasure of discovering that the world is bigger, more magical, and also way more dangerous than it first appears, and Stranger Things is one of the few shows that nails that same feeling. On the surface, it might look like the focus is Vecna and the Upside Down, but from the very beginning, what actually hooks you is the idea that a group of kids has stumbled onto a big secret they were never meant to find, and now there’s no going back. The story kicks in when a boy disappears, a mysterious girl shows up, and the town of Hawkins becomes the center of a supernatural collapse.
When you think about how Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone starts, it’s very much about Harry moving from survival mode with the Dursleys into a completely new world that feels magical but also weird, strict, and sometimes outright dangerous. That’s why Stranger Things works so well as a warm-up for the reboot. The tones aren’t identical, but the core mechanics are: friendship driving the story forward and adventure colliding with suspense. Even Hogwarts, which is supposed to feel safe at first, carries that same undercurrent once you start paying attention.
Totally overlooked, A Series of Unfortunate Events feels like it was built for people who enjoy smart young characters stuck in a completely dysfunctional adult world — and that actually connects more to Harry Potter than it might seem at first glance. In the show, we follow three siblings who become orphans and are always chased by a cruel villain who is after their inheritance. The approach is obviously different from Harry Potter, since it leans more into dark comedy, but that contrast actually works in its favor if you’re preparing for the HBO reboot, which is expected to have a more grounded, serious tone.
The point of watching A Series of Unfortunate Events before Harry Potter Season 1 is getting used to the idea of stepping into a world that looks like it could be whimsical or even child-friendly on the surface, but isn’t. That’s very much the energy of Sorcerer’s Stone, where the story plants the idea that Voldemort is still out there, even if it’s not visible yet. Besides, Harry starts off being dismissed and treated like a problem until he finds who he is, what he can do, and what’s going on. The Baudelaires go through a similar emotional rhythm, just in a more relentless way: a world where danger is normal, and survival depends on logic, awareness, and adapting fast.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of those picks you kind of have to respect, because very few shows still understand how to mix teenage life with the supernatural without turning everything into chaos. Yes, there are episodes that feel very ’90s TV, but the way the series builds its characters is still a masterclass compared to a lot of modern genre shows. The story follows Buffy, a girl who is chosen to fight vampires and demons while also trying to maintain a normal life. And that’s why it fits here: the fantasy only works because the emotional stakes are treated seriously.
It doesn’t matter how many monsters you throw on screen if the drama doesn’t feel real. Harry Potter works on the same principle: it’s about a kid who suddenly gets pushed into a world he didn’t ask for, filled with responsibility, danger, and expectations he has to learn how to carry emotionally. Plus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer also leans into the idea of school as a battlefield, which is basically Hogwarts in a different genre. And the character parallels are hard to dismiss: Rupert Giles basically functions like Dumbledore, while Xander and Willow mirror Ron and Hermione in terms of group dynamics and emotional support.
When it comes to fantasy with a more serious tone and detailed worldbuilding, His Dark Materials is gold. It features concepts like politics, religion, science, and parallel universes, but it demands your full attention to properly follow how everything unfolds. And that’s actually a good thing, because the Harry Potter reboot will need to feel big right from the start, even while adapting the first book, which is more “childlike” compared to the later ones. Here, the story follows Lyra, a girl who gets caught up in a conspiracy connected to the disappearance of children.
His Dark Materials is very much about that sense of discovery and unease, especially the feeling that something is wrong, but no one is really talking about it. It’s the same feeling Harry starts to experience when he realizes there’s something deeply strange going on with his own story. And in both cases, magic is tied to identity, coming-of-age, and choice. In fact, comparisons between the two are pretty common as they both follow that arc of a child being pushed into a much more complex world. Also, this universe features daemons (souls manifested in animal form), which may also remind you of Horcruxes.
In terms of basic vibe, Percy Jackson & the Olympians is probably the closest thing you can get to Harry Potter: a kid who feels out of place discovers he’s actually special, realizes the world was hiding an entire hidden universe, and then gets pulled into training for it. In the story itself, Percy finds out he’s the son of Poseidon and is unexpectedly forced to deal with gods, monsters, and prophecies. There’s mythology and creatures involved, which naturally echoes the wizarding world, but at its core this is more about belonging than anything else.
Percy Jackson steps into the reality of being a demigod, in the same way Harry steps into being a wizard. Before that, both of them are just kids who don’t fit into normal life, and the story works because they finally understand why. The series also has themes of destiny and legacy, which are some of the key pillars of Harry’s journey as well. So watching Percy Jackson & the Olympians before the new Harry Potter reboot is basically a very effective warm-up: the structure is extremely similar, just set in a different mythological system. You’ve got Annabeth and Grover acting as Percy’s core friend group, Camp Half-Blood functioning as a kind of Hogwarts equivalent, and rival demigods living and training together in the same space.
Spin-off of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, Legacies doesn’t really require you to have watched either of those shows to get into it. And it earns its place here for a very specific reason: it’s pure, straightforward supernatural-school entertainment, which puts you in the exact mindset you need for Harry Potter. The story follows Hope Mikaelson and other young supernatural students learning to control their powers, but having to deal with a constant flow of magical threats. And expect everything from witches, vampires, and werewolves to creatures like dragons showing up along the way.
What makes Hogwarts so addictive (and why fans are so obsessed with it existing in real life) is the format itself: classes, dorms, rivalries, internal rules, friendships, and that feeling that the school is basically its own functioning universe. Legacies takes that same formula and just keeps throwing supernatural elements into it as a way to escalate stakes. It doesn’t really aim for the same emotional weight as the wizarding world, but it still gives that very specific mood of watching characters grow up inside a magical institution. And the interesting part is how it shows why this setup works so well on TV, because in Harry Potter, Hogwarts isn’t just a backdrop, but the actual narrative engine.
If you go into Fate: The Winx Saga thinking about the original animated Winx Club, you’ll probably end up disappointed. But if you treat it as its own thing, it works. Here, the production shows, very clearly, what happens when you take the “magic school” concept and try to ground it into a more modern teen drama format. In the story, Bloom discovers she’s a fairy and gets sent to a school where she has to learn how to control her powers, while, almost predictably, some threats start emerging around her.
This is another version of a very familiar structure: fantasy setting, teenagers discovering abilities, chaotic friendships, shifting rivalries, faction dynamics, and secrets being exposed. Bloom also fits the same narrative archetype as Harry in a lot of ways: she’s a “chosen one” who gets pulled out of an ordinary life into a world she didn’t even know existed, for reasons tied directly to who she is. And even though the show was canceled, it still works as a useful warm-up for Harry Potter since it reinforces something important about this kind of story: it’s not just about magic and visual spectacle; it’s about rhythm and atmosphere. Fate: The Winx Saga actually understands that better than it gets credit for.
Are you ready for the Harry Potter series? Which of these shows are you adding to your watchlist? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
