Our household has returned to a full-fledged Harry Potter infection. Our 9-year-old has made it to book 5, we've just re-watched movie 6 (which means opening the book once again to check for differences) and the Harry Potter Lego game is on the Wii. C's ducked out to watch movie 7.1 while I prefer to watch all of The Hallows at once next year.

In a few years, after all the Pensieve-Edition-on-Fuscia-Ray discs come out and the revenue streams dry up, what will JK do? Will she allow a reboot? Does she have a choice?

Here's my modest proposal: make an animated serial.

With the exception of maybe the first book, the 2-to-5 hour format just isn't enough to build a completely satisfying story. So free yourself of the time constraints and make "more" from each book. Make as many half-hour episodes as needed. Yes there will still be edits - video is different from text. But there should be a way to welcome back Ludo Bagman, the Wronsky Feint, Winky the house elf, and S.P.E.W to an expanded Goblet of Fire (feel free to contact me with what we think is missing from the other books).

There are plenty of digital assets from the movies, so re-use them. I'm neutral on performance capture - but I don't feel the need for photo-realism. Do what makes sense. But while the principals are still with us at least throw them in a voice-recording studio. How can anyone ever be Snape other than Alan Rickman?

As for distribution, it's going to take at least 10 years for all this to play out. Warner Bros. will want to do something new for The Boy Who Lived, settle rights, and then get production started. By then I imagine we'll have settled how audiences will watch this version. But some mix of HBO & online streaming makes the most sense. Play it right on TV and you could string it out 4 or 5 years.

Meanwhile, I need to plan a trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando...