Freeform Can No Longer Air the Harry Potter Movies So Christmas Is Canceled

It's the end of an era. After years of airing the Harry Potter films in epic weekend-long marathons, Freeform has lost its rights to air the franchise, Collider has confirmed. The news comes after HBO announced it would be welcoming all eight movies to the network with a marathon starting the morning of Jan. 1, 2018. As it turns out, NBC Universal fostered the deal with HBO exclusively, preventing Freeform from airing the films in the future.

Though the Harry Potter movies are not included in Freeform's 25 Days of Christmas lineup, there was a dedicated marathon the weekend of Thanksgiving. Freeform has not announced when it will air the movies next, but time is running out, as this change will go into effect at the start of the new year.

While this news is fairly inconsequential for people with HBO subscriptions, it is pretty upsetting for people who have taken comfort in Freeform's marathons. Freeform has yet to announce a replacement for Harry Potter's usual time slots, but whatever it is, it will have some very big shoes to fill.