Controversial Harry Potter Story Officially Being Turned Into Movie

Following an expensive acquisition by Legendary, a controversial Harry Potter story is officially being turned into a film.

The Harry Potter fandom is nothing if not resourceful, and if you look at the franchise’s almost 30-year history, you’ll find all sorts of interesting and odd creations crafted up by the community.

This also includes the various fan-fictions and “shipping” that has occurred over the years, pairing up two characters into a romantic relationship, even if this didn’t occur in the original work.

Alchemised by author SenLinYu allegedly began as a Harry Potter fanfiction that was “Dramione” (the pairing up of a forbidden love between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Grainger), but the book has been repurposed into a dark fantasy romance novel for when it hits shelves later this month.

Ahead of its publication, film production company Legendary Pictures has reportedly bought the film rights in a $3 million deal, the biggest ever acquisition for a book’s film rights (via The Hollywood Reporter), not adjusting for inflation.

“I’m honored by Legendary’s incredible enthusiasm for the project and can’t wait to see the world of Paladia come to life,” SenLinYu told The Hollywood Reporter.

Alchemised is set in a fantasy world with necromancers and alchemists, and centred around Helen Marino, a healer who fights to preserve her forgotten memories and lost history from being unearthed by that of a necromancer.

The blurb reads: “In this riveting dark fantasy debut, a woman with missing memories fights to survive a war-torn world of necromancy and alchemy ― and the man tasked with unearthing the deepest secrets of her past.”

The book, which is being published by Penguin Random House, is set to hit shelves on 23rd September with a first edition run of 750,000 copies and translations into 21 different languages.

Prior to writing Alchemised, SenLinYu had written Reylo fan fiction, a pairing of Kylo Ren and Rey from the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Their work has gained over 20 million individual downloads, and has been translated into 23 different languages.

As for when a potential film adaptation could surface, it’s worth noting that some books don’t materialise into films for years after their acquisition. A lot of cheaper purchases don’t even go into production, and the studio ends up sitting on them until it’s seen as commercially viable.

However, given the scope of the acquisition as the most expensive movie deal of all time, I imagine Legendary will want to make its money back rather quickly and could put a film into production in the next year or so.