There’s no debate that Harry Potter has given pop culture a new lead. The novel created by J.K. Rowling has audiences of various ages under its spell. The role of Harry Potter in pop culture is recognized worldwide. The book series, the movies, the merchandise that is associated with both, housewares, clothing, unauthorized books, the music industry, and even the websites are bringing Harry Potter to the cultural frontline. All these things are helping the series to climb up the ladder of success; even after more than 20 years, it’s still sprinkling magic over pop culture. Harry Potter introduced a new concept and it has magically enhanced pop culture. It brought a unique and unused theme and won over the hearts of the people. Before the fantasy genre was just child literature, there was nothing new to it that could attract new readers or readers from various aspects, but Harry Potter changed the thought of society.
Harry Potter has been the emperor of pop culture for many years and that is a milestone. It is still generating its magic and the fans are growing day by day. People are interested in collecting items related to it and they are never bored to interact with the franchise’s various branches. This franchise shaped how stories are told, how audiences interact with content, and how creators approach the content.
The Harry Potter Franchise Model:
The Harry Potter franchise is one of the most popular franchises in history; it has suppressed the famous popular franchise of James Bond, which ruled the franchise for over 50 years. Harry Potter has set a new level for the future franchise for multi-platforms. The Harry Potter franchise includes books, films, merchandise, and theme parks that are popular to this day.
Books are getting sold out every time they get published again. There are even many copies of this book series that are available in the market. Even though these books are illegal, who’s going to stop the fans? Bookworms who can’t afford the main publications, buy these unauthorized books and try to nullify the unquenched thirst for the series. The books are translated into more than eighty languages, there might be more unknown.
Films have made the series more affordable as people from anywhere can watch them. It has been growing its net worth day by day. The fans are crazy over the cast. They follow their every movement and try to learn about their lifestyles through which the websites get their content. The media always stays up to date with the news of the Harry Potter franchise. Even the theme parks are inspired by the movie’s content. The places where the movies got shot are also used as Harry Potter parks.
The Harry Potter franchise has influenced other franchises, such as Marvel and Star Wars, which were able to hit the box office. They are following the blueprint of the Harry Potter franchise to become popular among audiences. Giving life to their characters through making films. Using the movie shot spots as their theme parks even arranging rides and exclusive merchandise themed as their franchise.
Pop Culture’s Shift Toward Fantasy and Serialized Storytelling:
J.K. Rowling has used long-term narrative arcs to create the whole series. This was an amazing talent of Rowling for how perfectly she held all the books’ storylines together. Even the stories are linked with each other by delicate information that at first seems like just mere information but later on, plays a crucial role in the plot. J.K. Rowling’s plot twists are unexpected and leave the audience awestruck. For example, in The Prisoner of Azkaban, at the beginning, the audience learns about Sirius Black as the friend of Harry’s father who betrayed him and helped Voldemort kill them. Later on, when the mysteries unfold, the audience, all along within, learns that Sirius Black was also a victim of Lord Voldemort and was imprisoned for twelve years.
After the popularity of Harry Potter, long-term narrative arcs became popular, and many writers used them in their writing, like Twilight, The Hunger Games, The Maze Runner, Stranger Things, etc.
Every fantasy-based storyline was influenced by Harry Potter, and any person can feel it. Even some writers confessed that they were inspired by J.K. Rowling’s masterpiece.
Harry Potter’s Role in Shaping Fandoms:
Fans play a vital role in keeping Harry Potter on the top list of any other franchise. Fans communicate with each other with the help of social media; they introduce the audiences to various pages through which they can keep up communication with each other. These pages assist in enhancing the new generation of the Harry Potter series. Memes are another way to get the attention of the new generation as they love this content very much. Fans even make fan-made stories that they build to get the desired ending. Some fans even produce new storylines using the characters and themes of Harry Potter which makes it more popular.
Harry Potter is one kind of blueprint for other fandoms such as Game of Thrones, Marvel, etc.
Even though Game of Thrones is a novel created in 1996, later it followed the theories of Harry Potter to create a massive franchise. Marvel also followed the path created by Harry Potter, making films on the characters and making them popular. They started their merchandise items, and they all hit blockbusters.
The massive role of Harry Potter in pop culture has been proven by the series’ popularity throughout the world. It is dominating the pop world by bringing new ideologies in front. The Harry Potter franchise has a life-changing effect on content creation. They are prepared with new projects related to the world of magic. The upcoming HBO movies are the talk of the town these days; some predict that it may be the Harry Potter movie.
There’s even a chance that a new movie will be created with the main casts of the eight Harry Potter Movies where the storyline will be 19 years later than the previous storyline. All the Potter fans are very excited about this new movie even though the cast or the franchise hasn’t confirmed anything. Yet the fans are more likely hopeful that a Harry Potter TV show will revive the lost shine of Harry Potter even though that is not a concern as Harry Potter is a series that holds the adoration of people of every age, religion, or even language. This series has broken every barrier and brought humanity together to create a magical, enchanted world.
