Over five years after the release of what Potterheads expected to be the last Harry Potter film, another movie set in the Wizarding World has hit theaters all over the world. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was planned to be the first in a three-part series and now will be the first film of five. It is also J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a play that sheds light on the adult lives of the three main characters and their children, has opened in London and will likely open on Broadway in 2018. While it was not written by J.K. Rowling and certainly doesn't read that way, it is still considered canon.
Many, myself included, mourned the end of the series after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2 was released. I began reading about Harry, Ron, and Hermione in first grade. When the last book was released, my mom and I kept stealing it from each other to read it. The Harry Potter series helped to fuel my creativity and love for reading when I was little. It showed me that kids as young as eleven can save the world. It taught me that everything is not always how it appears (for all we know, entire worlds may exist between the creases of our vision). Here are a few reasons why the Harry Potter fandom will never die:
1. It's written for people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds.
Harry Potter may have originally been written for children, but it hasn’t stopped millions of adults from becoming active members of the wizarding community. I started reading Harry Potter when I was in first grade, and my mom was already reading the series. By the time the last book came out, we had our own bookmarks and kept stealing it from each other until we had both finished it. It only took a couple days. They aren’t geared more towards women like the Twilight Saga and the Divergent series; Harry Potter is something that can be enjoyed by anyone and everyone.
2. J.K. Rowling has done an incredible job of keeping her work in the news.
The novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released in 2007, almost a decade ago. The film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2 was released in 2011. I know a lot of cynics who thought the hype would die down after the last film was released. Even I was devastated by what I thought was the end (even though the ending could not have been resolved any better). J.K. Rowling has written a couple of novels outside of the Harry Potter series, all well-received, but most of her publicity in the past several years has come from her creation of other media related to the wizarding world: short stories on Pottermore, “textbooks” like Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, wizarding literature like The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and now her new screenplay series beginning with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
3. Fans have never stopped begging for more material.
So many people around my age have grown up experiencing the Wizarding World through novels and films. It has been such an integral part of my life that it will never really end for me. Even in the lull in which not much material was being created by J.K. Rowling, dozens of fan theories and homemade Hogwarts sorting quizzes circulated. I follow several Harry Potter-themed Twitter accounts just to get my daily dose of wizarding wisdom and humor or celebrate a character’s birthday. Content like The Potter Puppet Pals and A Very Potter Musical/A Very Potter Sequel has become very popular because Potterheads cling to every bit of available material, and while it was never something I enjoyed, I know of many authors and readers of Harry Potter fanfiction. The dedication of the fans has been proven time and time again with the enthusiasm we have shown for new stories and inside information regarding the Wizarding World.
4. It is much more than just a fantasy story about a world that exists within our own.
I would argue that this series and its auxiliary material have influenced me almost as much as the real world in terms of the lines between good and evil, bravery and recklessness, and order and authoritarianism. The Harry Potter series is filled with political, racial, and religious commentary that likely contributed to the budding worldviews of many millennials.
5. Harry Potter is immersive.
One of my favorite things about the series is that it doesn’t take place on another planet. It doesn’t take place in the future or far in the past. The main characters aren’t supernatural beings. According to Harry Potter, an entire universe exists just below our level of awareness, and there is hope for we No-Majs (or Muggles if you live in the U.K.) to join this community. Hermione Granger, one of the main characters, is Muggle-born, and she was entirely unaware of the Wizarding World until she received her Hogwarts letter when she was 11. I was very disappointed when I received no such letter, but I had no idea at the time that I should really be seeking out Ilvermorny, the North American wizarding school. Fans can be sorted into houses (at both Hogwarts and Ilvermorny) on Pottermore. They can also take quizzes to determine wand type (mine is 12.5” fir with a dragon heartstring core and reasonably supple flexibility) and Patronus (mine is an otter). Fans feel personally involved in the story instead of acting as observers.
6. Harry Potter is worldwide.
According to Scholastic, “The Harry Potter books are distributed in over 200 territories, are translated into 68 languages and have sold over 400 million copies worldwide.” It is simply too large and too universal of a phenomenon to go quietly.
The Boy Who Lived will never die even if his story has come to a close.
