7 TV Series You Need to Watch Before Harry Potter Season 1 — And Exactly Why

The Harry Potter reboot hits HBO in December, and the Season 1 trailer makes it crystal clear where we start: they’re retelling Sorcerer’s Stone. Translation: the early episodes have to reintroduce the wizarding world, explain the rules, and still move like a story everybody already knows by heart. That is a tightrope walk.

If you’re already getting nostalgic for that first-time-magic feeling and want to tune your brain for wands, weird rules, and kids in over their heads, there are shows that deliver the same kick in different flavors. Here’s a pregame queue to get you back in the headspace before December.

The warm-up queue

7. Stranger Things

   On paper it’s about Vecna and the Upside Down, but the hook has always been the thrill of kids stumbling onto a secret world they were never meant to see. It starts with a missing kid, a mysterious girl, and a small town turning into ground zero for supernatural chaos. That energy lines up with early Potter: a nobody kid gets yanked out of survival mode and into something bigger, stranger, and more dangerous than he was warned about. The tones aren’t identical, but the engine is the same - friendship drives the plot, and the cozy setting isn’t nearly as safe as it looks. Hogwarts has that same undercurrent if you pay attention.

8. A Series of Unfortunate Events

   Criminally overlooked and very on-brand if you like sharp kids navigating a broken adult world. Three siblings lose their parents, get hounded by a theatrical villain chasing their inheritance, and survive by being clever, prepared, and skeptical. It leans into dark comedy, which actually complements what the HBO series is expected to do - go more grounded and serious. The key overlap with Sorcerer’s Stone is the vibe: a world that looks whimsical on the surface but isn’t, and a nagging sense that a bigger evil is out there even if no one will say it out loud. Harry starts off dismissed and underestimated until he finds his footing; the Baudelaires live that rhythm on hard mode.

9. Buffy the Vampire Slayer

   Few shows juggle teen life and supernatural stakes without turning into soup. Yes, some episodes are very 90s, but the character work is still a clinic. Buffy is chosen to fight monsters while trying to stay a functioning human, and the fantasy lands because the emotional math is treated like real life. That’s Potter 101: kid, responsibility, danger, expectations, and a school that doubles as a battlefield. The echoes are wild once you see them - Giles fills the wise-mentor space like Dumbledore, and Xander/Willow map surprisingly well to Ron/Hermione in team dynamics and heart.

10. His Dark Materials

    If you want meaty worldbuilding with a serious tone, this is the gold standard. It mixes politics, religion, science, and parallel worlds, and it expects you to keep up. That’s a good headspace for a reboot that needs to feel big right away, even while adapting the most childlike book. Lyra gets pulled into a conspiracy tied to disappearing children, and the show lives in that tense place where something is clearly wrong and nobody will talk about it. Magic here is identity and choice, not just spectacle. Bonus: the daemon concept - your soul as an animal companion - scratches a similar itch to certain later Potter ideas, even if they aren’t the same thing.

11. Percy Jackson & the Olympians

    In terms of basic vibe, this is the closest match: a kid who never fit in learns why, discovers a hidden world, and gets fast-tracked into training. Percy finds out he’s Poseidon’s kid and suddenly it’s gods, monsters, and prophecies all the way down. At the core it’s about belonging and identity - exactly what makes early Potter click. Annabeth and Grover are the ride-or-dies, Camp Half-Blood is the school-with-rules-and-rivalries, and the structure mirrors Hogwarts enough that it’s basically a thematic scrimmage before the main event.

12. Legacies

    Spin-off of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, but you don’t need homework to watch it. It’s straight-up supernatural-school TV: classes, dorm drama, internal rules, and an endless parade of magical threats. Think witches, vampires, werewolves, and the occasional dragon crashing third period. It doesn’t chase the same emotional weight as Potter, but it nails the appeal of a self-contained institution that functions like its own little universe. That setup is why Hogwarts works on TV - the school isn’t just a backdrop, it’s the narrative engine.

13. Fate: The Winx Saga

    If you come in expecting the animated Winx Club, you’ll probably bounce. Treated as its own thing, though, it’s a clean example of taking the magic-school template and grounding it in modern teen drama. Bloom discovers she’s a fairy, gets shipped off to train, and threats start circling. The beats are familiar in a good way: abilities awakening, messy friendships, shifting rivalries, faction politics, and secrets bubbling up. Bloom fits the same archetype as Harry - yanked from normal life into a hidden world for reasons baked into who she is. Even though the show was canceled, it’s a useful tone-setter: this kind of story lives or dies on rhythm and atmosphere, not just cool spells.

Bottom line: if you want to ease back into that Day 1 Hogwarts mindset before December, this lineup will get you there without burning out the nostalgia. Pick a lane - mystery kids, grim whimsy, chosen-one training, or capital-F Fantasy - and let your brain re-learn the rules of walking through a door into a bigger world.