Harry Potter

Harry Potter fans will be swarming The Masonic Temple in May for PotterCon, an event all about the popular J.K. Rowling's children's novels.

Stocks in magic are down. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was less than fantastic (hey-o), the much-touted stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child won’t come to Broadway for months, and we can assume that the constant onslaught that was 2016 sapped many children of their belief in the wonder of magic. The Harry Potter-industrial complex needs a shot in the arm, and head honchos over at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park may have just the thing to inspire a little excitement.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them made no secret of the fact that though it takes place an ocean and almost a century away, it’s still deeply tied to the Harry Potter universe. Johnny Depp plays the dark wizard Grindelwald, the Voldemort before Voldemort, in this movie and its sequels, and director David Yates is already casting for Dumbledore for the sequel, who we know used to be Grindelwald’s friend. Another character with close ties to Newt Scamander will appear in the Fantastic Beasts sequel, and bring the magizoologist’s past back with them. (Be warned: SPOILERS for Fantastic Beasts are contained in the following paragraphs.)

Leading up to the 15th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on November 16, we’re looking back on the series and rewatching one movie each week to see how they hold up.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the third movie in the beloved magical franchise, but in many ways, it was a film of firsts. It was the first Potter not directed by Chris Columbus (Alfonso Cuaron served as his replacement) and it was also the first Potter released in IMAX. Those are just a couple of the facts featured in the newest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

How do you make a successful Harry Potter prequel without Harry Potter? J.K. Rowling’s new spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, travels back nearly 70 years to 1926 before the events of the first Potter movie to tell a whole new story in a new setting with (almost) all new characters. Reviving the magical universe from the second biggest franchise of all time is a pretty risky move, but Fantastic Beasts does a good job of blending the familiar with the new.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is already looking at four more sequels, despite the fact that the first isn’t even out in theaters yet. The folks Warner Bros. seem pretty sure they have a hit on their hands. While we don’t know a whole lot about the second one, other than it’s set in Paris and will star Johnny Depp in some capacity, we’ve heard as of today that the movie is casting, and looking for one very exciting role: Albus Dumbledore. You might’ve heard of him.

With the premiere of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them only a couple short weeks away, fans old and new to the Potter universe are gearing up their excitement. As this movie opens up the franchise to a different time period and a slew of new characters and magical history and possibilities, we’ve got a whole new world ahead of us. A few new TV spots give us another look at that world before the premiere.

With four more films planned in the new Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise, we’re starting to suspect that the wizarding world of 1920s New York is more directly connected to the Harry Potter series than previously thought. Need more proof? This helpful lesson in magical history from the insanely charming Ezra Miller should do the trick.

Whatever the reason behind late-in-the-game Stranger Things mashups, we’re hard-pressed to deny some of the skill involved. Following Buffy and Charlie Brown combinations, Netflix’s surprise summer hit gets a magical Harry Potter mashup, as Eleven and her friends take a trip to Hogwarts.

Do you prefer pie or strudel? It’s a valid question. If you ask the faceless horde over at Yahoo! Answers, the correct response is pie (and it isn’t really even that close). But if you ask Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them character  —  and noted muggle  —  Jacob Kowalski, there’s nothing that hits the spot quite like a piping hot strudel for dinner. The secret ingredient? Why, magic, of course.

Leading up to the 15th anniversary of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’ on November 16, we’re looking back on the series and rewatching one movie each week to see how they hold up.