Harry Potter is known by many names like “The Boy Who Lived”, “ The Chosen One” etc. It has been over 25 years since Harry Potter’s lasting legacy. The magic of Harry Potter is continuing and growing every year. Years just passed by so fast for the Potter fandom like some days have just passed. It still feels like just some days ago, J.K. Rowling wrote the first book of Harry Potter, but if we count the years exactly from 1997, Harry Potter celebrated its silver jubilee in 2022. It feels like a magical effect that time flies away with while we, the Potterheads, have the opportunity to interact with the Wizarding World. Harry Potter has been influencing our society and culture in many perspectives. It has given us motivation, young people learn the methods of life, the importance of a balanced society and many more. Even politicians and influencers take motivations and moralities from the series as it has shown the reality of the human life cycle. Harry Potter is still showing its magic, shaping the world and changing it for the better. Even at this time, people are purchasing Harry Potter merchandise and books of Harry Potter, and there are many websites where Harry Potter-related topics are searched on a daily basis.
The Early Years of Harry Potter
The story of Harry Potter actually sounds like a fairytale if you think about it from J.K. Rowling’s perspective. She was just a single mother who was struggling through her life after finishing her studies. She had never thought about writing before, as she was not aware of her writing ability before herself. Rowling was waiting for her train to return home at the platform when suddenly the thought of the magical story came to her mind knocking at the door of her thoughts. Later, she even thought of the names of the famous four houses of Hogwarts while she was on a flight; at that time, she had no paper with her, so she wrote the names on an airsick bag so she wouldn’t forget them. In 1997, the first book of Harry Potter was published by Bloomsbury Publications in the United Kingdom under the name Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. In the United States, the book was published by Scholastic Press under the name Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. After releasing the first novel of Harry Potter the book earned a huge amount of popularity and admiration from the readers. This book includes drama, fantasy, coming-of-age, mystery thriller, adventure, horror items, romance, and last but not least, comedy. This combination of all genres helps it to become one of the best-selling books in history.
From the day of the first book’s release date in this journey of the magical world, it doesn’t have to look back. Even though this book has received mixed reviews from critics, it wasn’t powerful enough to stop its popularity from growing. Research says that the books have sold over six hundred million copies worldwide, making Harry Potter the best-selling book series in history. It has been translated into many known languages legally and there may be many other translated versions that we may not know! The last four books have broken their records and every time set the records as the fastest-selling books in history. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold 2.7 million copies in the United Kingdom and 8.3 million copies in the United States within 24 hours after its release. Harry Potter is continuing to shape modern literature and generations. It is an amazing experience for the fans to grow up alongside the series and character and seeing its success is an emotional event.
The Evolution of the Franchise
The Warner Bros. Pictures added more blows in the rising fire of Harry Potter. Adapting the original seven books into eight-part movies was one of their best projects. In 2016, the total value of Harry Potter turned out to be $25 billion, which is the highest-grossing media franchise of all time.
Other than the films, Harry Potter has revolutionized their franchise by adding various branches alongside the film. Such branches are merchandise, video games, and theme parks which provide the desirable interaction and emotional attachment of the fans to it. Let’s discuss about the evolution of the Harry Potter franchises:
Film
The Harry Potter film production has added another feather to the process of Harry Potter’s success. The films were made with utmost care so the fans wouldn’t get offended by any small mistakes. The use of high-quality VFX has enhanced the franchise’s appearance. Character casting like Daniel Radcliff as the main character, Harry Potter, Emma Watson as the female lead, Hermione Granger, and the second lead, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, have become the permanent faces of these characters.
Merchandise
Merchandise of the Harry Potter series has played a significant role in increasing the influence of the franchise beyond the books. Harry Potter merchandise helps the fans to get immersed further into the series. There is merchandise like clothes, companion books, toys, home decor, stationeries, and, more importantly, theme park-exclusive merchandise. The theme park exclusive items are precious and admired by the fans most as they can only get from the parks. You can have your personalized robe, interactive wands, and Butterbeer-flavored treats, which are popular items among theme park visitors. Fans can have their personalized mufflers themed as Harry Potter’s four houses.
On Halloween, Harry Potter merchandise and costumes are the most used house decor. Harry Potter-themed house products are very popular among the fandom. We, the Potterheads, will die to own a house that is fully organized with Harry Potter-themed items. From the kitchen to the drawing room, everything customized to Harry Potter’s magical world is a must-wanted desire of the Potterheads.
Video Games
Video games of Harry Potter are not only popular among the fans but the gamers who are interested in playing new games get attracted to these games. The video games are made to align with the plot and places of the book; even the characters like professors and the frequent appearances of the death eaters and goblins or magical creatures have been kept in these games. As a result, the players can have the full taste of living in the magical world by themselves. Some games move to the next level by the choice of the players. The video game developers have tried to keep games related by adding familiar alleys, houses, the Gringotts, and many more memorial places. They even kept an option where a player could use magic spells and resolve the mysteries to level up in the games. Some of the popular video games of Harry Potter are LEGO Harry Potter and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.
Theme Parks
The official name of Harry Potter theme parks is The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. These parks have many exciting rides that represent the Harry Potter series. These rides allow the fans to experience the wizarding world. While enjoying the rides, they may come to interact with many memorable places such as the Diagon Alleys, the Hogsmeads, the Ministry of Magic, etc. Every year, these parks get swarmed by fans who love to enjoy the rides and experience the magic. I would love to visit the theme parks whenever I get the chance, what about you?
Cultural and Societal Impact
Are you a newbie in this magical world? Do you want to know what all this hype is about over Harry Potter? I will suggest that you read the first book of Harry Potter and then you will have no need to look back. The first book has a thriller, mystery, adventure, and all the elements that helped it to gain the attention of readers all over the world. Harry Potter’s lasting legacy is not a child play anymore it has become the emperor of the fantasy genre. Harry Potter has an entertaining environment that attracts adults, young, and children as they enjoy exploring the Wizarding World. A lot of books have gone under the river of literature, but Harry Potter still manages to keep its popularity intact as new.
Harry Potter’s massive popularity around the world has many reasons depicted by the fans. The most important of them all is its storytelling by keeping morality and ethics as its main weapons. Harry Potter is not only a fantasy work but beneath the magical works lays down the moralities of the society. J.K. Rowling tries her best to show the problems and taboos of real life in the series. She tried to keep many characters that are from different regions and have different religious appearances. Her characters are made in a specific way where they do not care about the boundaries made by society. These thoughts and characteristics of the Trinity have influenced many people. Her attempt to raise awareness through the series was successful as people were coming around the topics and started to spread awareness. Many Harry Potter-based alliances help this mission actively. Their slogan says, “The Weapon We Have is Love.” Among all the popular ethics of Harry Potter, my favorite ones are something like this: “No person is fully pure or fully evil; in a person, there are both bad and good in them; this mixture of personality is what makes them human.” “ It is up to a person if they want to be a good person or bad their choices make them into a better person or an evil one.”
Future Of Harry Potter Legacy
The future projects for Harry Potter have already been planned out by the franchise. Many projects are coming in the future related to Harry Potter. A new addition to Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, was published in 2016. This play follows the storyline of Albus Severus Potter, the son of Harry Potter. There’s a rumor floating around that Warners Bros. is developing a new movie based on the Cursed Child. However, some fans predict that there may not be another Harry Potter movie until 2030. But who knows, the franchise may drop a trailer for the fans on a beautiful, bright day. Cursed Child is written by Jack Thone. Story by Jack Thone, J.K. Rowling, and John Tiffany.
The Harry Potter franchise is going through a massive change following the failures of the Fantastic Beasts trilogy. There was a plan for bringing out another movie of this series but the failures brought it to a stop. The unconditional support from the fans gives the franchise new plans for the future. After the huge flop of the Fantastic Beasts trilogy, the franchise is planning to come back strongly. For this reason, it may take some time for us to get another movie that is related to the Harry Potter series. As for the time being Warner Bros. has put its attention on the new HBO Harry Potter TV show. This is brighter news for the fans. This new series will retell the story from the beginning and cover all the left-out topics by the films. Each season will cover each book, so, surely, the series will be more detailed, and with the help of advanced technologies, it will be able to show the complicated scenes from the books more comfortably where the films were unsuccessful. The series will have more time and more advanced technologies, unlike the movies, so there’s a chance that the magical world will be able to finally come to life on a small screen. There was a lot of information gap between the books and the series. As a result, fans who only watched the movies did not have the authentic information and logic of the actual storyline.
In conclusion, we can say that Harry Potter has some serious effects on society, which helps it stay a lasting phenomenon. Harry Potter’s lasting legacy is a surprising topic for critics as it is still attracting a new generation to its magical world. The projects taken by the franchises helped Harry Potter to keep the talks rotated around it. Fans go crazy over having a chance to meet up with their favorite characters or even have a little bit of interaction with the series. Theme parks’ merchandise and other items keep the fans communicating with each other. We Potterheads are dedicated to keeping the Harry Potter effect burning like mad fire. There is no chance of slowing down Harry Potter’s train and the fans and the franchise will not let it happen so soon.
