News of HBO’s new Harry Potter television show has been swirling for some time. It’s something I’ve put off thinking about – until I came across a photo of the new actors dressed as Harry and Hagrid on set. My first reaction was simply, “Who the hell are those people?” I grew up on the Harry Potter films. Being roughly the same age as Daniel Radcliffe, I felt as if I was growing up alongside Harry with each release. I was always in the target demographic for each new film. Frankly, I never read the books. The films told a complete story, and my appetite for Harry Potter was satiated through them alone.

What really strikes me about this remake is that HBO is sticking to the exact same story. I still revisit the movies from time to time, and they all still hold up (the first four films are my favorite). Sure, the television show format will give them more breathing room to explore the source material, but is it really necessary to retell the same story beat-for-beat? The world of Harry Potter is ripe with potential for new stories. Why not make a series focusing on the next generation of Hogwarts students? Is Hollywood so devoid of original ideas that beat-for-beat remakes of beloved IP are the only option?

The fundamental question is whether people will watch this for the next decade. I’m sure that the debut will be one of the most-watched pilots in HBO history, but I question whether people will tune in week after week to see a story they’re thoroughly familiar with. There is obviously a younger audience who has never experienced the world of Harry Potter before; for this audience, the show will be great. However, HBO has reportedly invested billions into the production of this show. To succeed, their audience will need to make up everyone, and a large majority of everyone knows this story by heart.

Television is about entertainment, and a large part of that is experiencing a story for the first time. The Sopranos and Breaking Bad were gripping because of their unexpectedness. With this new Harry Potter show, I’m dubious of its value considering our preexisting knowledge of the source material. They’re simply replaying the hits. It’s symbolic of the larger trend in Hollywood to play off nostalgia. These studios don’t want to challenge us or take risks on new stories. Are we, as an audience, responsible for this?

New theatrical releases like Sinners and Weapons have proved that original stories can be hugely successful. The popularity of these films is proof that there is a strong appetite for original stories. Even within the framework of existing IP, spinoffs like Creed and shows like Andor have shown that original stories can exist within a preexisting world. I find it hard to believe that in a world as rich as Harry Potter there weren’t any original stories worth telling. People will point to the failures of the Fantastic Beasts series as a counterpoint, but I believe these films failed because they were poorly executed.

I recently came across an article on how the quality of AI output diminishes if an AI model is trained solely on its own output. Researchers trained an AI model on a photo of handwritten numerals, then retained it on its own output over multiple cycles. As the cycles progressed, the images devolved. After 30 cycles the output was a uniform grid of blurry numerals. The model had collapsed. Hollywood seems to be following the same pattern, creating content based only on past content. Soon enough, everything will be uniform—one giant sloppy amalgam of IP.

The only way to break this cycle is by introducing new, original content into the system. IP can only be recycled for so long until it completely loses the magic of what made it successful in the first place. The original run of Harry Potter’ssuccess was due in large part to its originality. Each installment introduced us to a richer, more imaginative world. The studios seem to be forgetting this crucial aspect: that originality leads to success. There are pitfalls in taking risks on new IP. Why try to find the next Harry Potter when Harry Potter already exists? The answer is that the reward outweighs the risk; audiences are hungry for new, original stories.

I really want to like the new Harry Potter series, but if this single on-set image is any indication, it seems the whole show will feel like a cosplay of the original. Hopefully, there are enough new ideas to make this show sustainable. I just wish that a fraction of the billions of dollars going toward this show could have been used on finding the next great piece of IP.