✨ A Love for Harry Potter — The Films, the Nostalgia and What's Coming
On 16 November 2001, the doors of a cinema opened in Leicester Square, London, and an eleven-year-old boy in round glasses stepped onto a train platform and pushed through a solid wall. What happened over the next ten years — eight films, a decade of Christmas releases, a generation of children who grew up inside a fictional world as real as their own school corridors — is one of the most sustained acts of collective imagination in the history of popular culture. The Harry Potter film franchise grossed £7.7 billion worldwide. All eight films are Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. All eight are available as art prints at 98types, from £3.
And then, twenty-five days before Christmas 2026, it begins again.
🎬 Breaking: The HBO Series Premieres Christmas Day 2026
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone — HBO Original Series
🎄 Christmas Day, 25 December 2026 · HBO & HBO Max
The first teaser trailer was released on 25 March 2026 and received 277 million views in 48 hours — the most-watched trailer in the history of HBO and HBO Max. The behind-the-scenes special Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic, narrated by Nick Frost, is already available on HBO Max. Season 1 consists of 8 episodes. A new season per book through 2037.
The New Cast
Harry Potter — Dominic McLaughlin
Hermione Granger — Arabella Stanton
Ron Weasley — Alastair Stout
Albus Dumbledore — John Lithgow
Severus Snape — Paapa Essiedu
Prof. McGonagall — Janet McTeer
Rubeus Hagrid — Nick Frost
Draco Malfoy — Lox Pratt
The Creative Team
Showrunner — Francesca Gardiner (Succession)
Director — Mark Mylod (Game of Thrones)
Score — Hans Zimmer (replacing John Williams)
Executive Producer — J.K. Rowling
Studios — Warner Bros. Leavesden, Hertfordshire
Returning actor — Warwick Davis as Prof. Flitwick
Run — 7 seasons through 2037, one book per season
Teaser views — 277M in first 48 hours (HBO record)
The HBO series is not a continuation of the films — it is a complete reimagining from the beginning, with an entirely new cast, a new score by Hans Zimmer, and the explicit ambition to give each of J.K. Rowling's seven novels the space that a film can never provide. Showrunner Francesca Gardiner, whose Emmy-winning work on Succession established her as one of the finest writers working in prestige television, spent four months in a selection process that included Rowling's direct input. The series will air one season per year on the same schedule as the original book releases, ending with Deathly Hallows in 2037.
For the generation that grew up with the original films — that went to midnight screenings, that organised their identities around their Hogwarts house, that still has a physical reaction when they hear Hedwig's Theme — the HBO series is simultaneously a nostalgic return and a genuinely new thing. The nostalgia is the point of entry. What's inside will be different.
🎞️ All 8 Films — The Complete Guide
Eight films released between 2001 and 2011. Every one a number-one box office opening. Every one Certified Fresh. The complete story of a boy who did not know he was a wizard, and of the decade he spent becoming the person the magical world needed him to be.
Film 01 of 08 · 2001 · Gryffindor
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
dir. Chris Columbus · 🧙 2001 · £93M Budget · £974M Gross · Warner Bros. · Leavesden Studios
The one that started everything. Nine-year-old Daniel Radcliffe arriving at Platform 9¾. Hagrid's motorbike from the sky. The Sorting Hat. The first glimpse of the Great Hall lit by ten thousand floating candles. Chris Columbus understood that the first film had one primary job — to make the audience believe — and every production decision was in service of that belief. The result was a film that grossed £974 million worldwide and demonstrated that British literature, British locations and a cast anchored by Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Richard Harris and Robbie Coltrane could anchor a franchise capable of running for a decade.
Film 02 of 08 · 2002 · Slytherin
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
dir. Chris Columbus · 🐍 2002 · Dobby · Kenneth Branagh · Basilisk · Diary · Flying Ford Anglia
The darkest of the Columbus films and the first to introduce the series' central mythology: the concept of the Horcrux (unnamed but present), the heir of Slytherin, and the specific quality of threat that makes Voldemort not merely dangerous but existentially so. Tom Ridley Marvolo Riddle's diary is the film's best set piece — the memory that comes alive, the sixteen-year-old Dark Lord emerging from the page to drain Ginny Weasley's life force — and it establishes the visual language of corruption that the series will use for the next six films. Dobby arrives, and the flying Ford Anglia crash-lands into the Whomping Willow, and chamber of secrets delivers on every promise the first film made.
Film 03 of 08 · 2004 · Ravenclaw
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
dir. Alfonso Cuarón · 🐺 2004 · Alfonso Cuarón · Sirius Black · Dementors · Time-Turner · Best of the Series
The one that changed everything. Alfonso Cuarón — who would go on to make Children of Men and Gravity — was given the third film and made it the artistic peak of the franchise. Prisoner of Azkaban is darker, more textured and more cinematographically ambitious than either Columbus film, using the seasons visually to track the emotional arc of the story and introducing the dementors as a physical representation of depression that remains the most psychologically precise horror in the series. Gary Oldman as Sirius Black, David Thewlis as Lupin, the Whomping Willow time sequence — Cuarón demonstrated what the series was capable of when handed to a filmmaker rather than a craftsman. The tragedy is that he only made one.
Film 04 of 08 · 2005 · Hufflepuff — Cedric
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
dir. Mike Newell · 🏆 2005 · Triwizard Tournament · Voldemort Returns · Cedric Diggory · Robert Pattinson
Voldemort returns. The graveyard sequence — Ralph Fiennes emerging from the cauldron, noseless and absolutely terrifying, Peter Pettigrew completing the ritual with borrowed bone and stolen blood — is the moment the series permanently left its childhood behind. Mike Newell's film was the first to be rated 12A in the UK, the first in which the stakes are genuinely mortal, the first in which a named character with full audience sympathy dies in front of the protagonist for no reason except bad luck and the wrong surname. Goblet of Fire also gave us Robert Pattinson as Cedric Diggory six years before Twilight, which is a casting note that never stops being interesting.
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Film #5
Order of the Phoenix
Film 05 of 08 · 2007 · The Ministry Years
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
dir. David Yates · 🏛️ 2007 · David Yates · Dolores Umbridge · Luna Lovegood · Ministry Battle
David Yates arrives and begins the streak of four consecutive directorial entries that will take the series to its conclusion. Order of the Phoenix is the film about institutional authority — Dolores Umbridge, Imelda Staunton's pink-cardiganed career bureaucrat who is more frightening than any of Voldemort's lieutenants because she operates within the rules rather than outside them. Luna Lovegood appears. The Department of Mysteries battle delivers the series' best action set piece to this point. Sirius dies, and the camera catches Daniel Radcliffe's face in the fraction of a second before he understands what has happened — the best piece of acting in the franchise.
Film 06 of 08 · 2009 · Horcrux Hunt Begins
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
dir. David Yates · 🔬 2009 · Dumbledore Dies · Draco · The Cave · Slughorn · Jim Broadbent
The penultimate film and the one that asks the most of its villain. Tom Riddle's memory sequences — seen through the Pensieve, the young Voldemort visited by Dumbledore at the orphanage — are the finest character work the franchise achieves: the making of a monster, explained without excusing. Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn provides the film's emotional centre: a man whose vanity led him to teach a student something dangerous, and whose final confession — that he gave Tom Riddle the information that led to the Horcruxes — is the scene in which the word Horcrux is finally spoken aloud in the series. The cave sequence. The Astronomy Tower. Dumbledore falls.
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Film #7
Deathly Hallows Part 1
Film 07 of 08 · 2010 · On the Run
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
dir. David Yates · 🏕️ 2010 · Forest Chase · Dobby Dies · The Tale of Three Brothers · Isolation
The film with no Hogwarts — the first in the franchise to leave the school entirely and follow three teenagers alone in the wilderness, with a fractured Horcrux locket poisoning their relationships and no adult supervision or institutional safety. Deathly Hallows Part 1 is the series' road movie: bleak, cold, autumnal, lit for once as if the world were actually as dangerous as the characters claim. The Tale of Three Brothers animated sequence — directed by Ben Hibon in the style of shadow puppetry — is the most formally beautiful scene in the entire franchise. Dobby dies and the audience never forgives the series for it. The field. The tiny grave.
Film 08 of 08 · 2011 · The Final Battle
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
dir. David Yates · 🔥 2011 · The End · Battle of Hogwarts · Harry Walks Into the Forest · £1.34B Gross
Harry walks into the forest to die. He does not run. He does not fight. He opens the Resurrection Stone and his parents walk toward him and he says: is it going to hurt? And his mother says: dying is easy, it's the people left behind who suffer. He closes his hand around the stone, drops it in the leaves, and walks toward Voldemort. This is the finest scene in the franchise and one of the finest scenes in the entire Harry Potter cultural phenomenon — in any medium, in any format. The Battle of Hogwarts delivers on every promise the seven previous films made. The final scene in the epilogue — everyone older, everyone on the platform — was filmed in a single day and required Daniel Radcliffe to spend five hours in prosthetic ageing makeup. He was twenty-one years old.
🎭 All 9 Harry Potter Prints at 98types — From £3
Every confirmed Harry Potter print in the 98types collection — from Philosopher's Stone to Deathly Hallows Part 2, plus Hedwig's Theme. All on 260gsm museum-grade satin paper with archive pigment inks. Buy 3 get 1 free.
✨ Shop All Harry Potter Posters at 98types — 9 Confirmed Prints
Philosopher's Stone · Chamber of Secrets · Prisoner of Azkaban · Goblet of Fire · Half-Blood Prince · Deathly Hallows · Hedwig's Theme. From £3 · Buy 3 get 1 free · 260gsm museum-grade · Same-day dispatch from Market Hall, Camden Lock Place, London NW1 8AL.
Shop HP Posters →
FAQ — Harry Potter Films & HBO Series
When does the new Harry Potter HBO series premiere?
The HBO Harry Potter series premieres on Christmas Day, 25 December 2026, on HBO in the US and HBO Max globally — including in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Italy. The first season, titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, consists of 8 episodes. The teaser trailer released on 25 March 2026 received 277 million views in 48 hours — the most-watched trailer in HBO history. A behind-the-scenes special, Finding Harry: The Craft Behind the Magic, is already available on HBO Max.
Who plays Harry, Ron and Hermione in the new HBO series?
The new golden trio are newcomers: Dominic McLaughlin as Harry Potter, Arabella Stanton as Hermione Granger and Alastair Stout as Ron Weasley. They were selected from over 32,000 auditioners. The adult cast includes John Lithgow as Dumbledore, Nick Frost as Hagrid, Janet McTeer as Professor McGonagall and Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape. Warwick Davis returns as Professor Flitwick — the only actor from the original films to reprise their role.
Which Harry Potter film is considered the best?
Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), directed by Alfonso Cuarón, is consistently cited in critical polls as the artistic peak of the franchise — the film that demonstrated what the series was capable of when given to a filmmaker of genuine ambition. Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) is usually cited as the most emotionally satisfying conclusion. Philosopher's Stone (2001) retains a specific nostalgic primacy for anyone who saw it as a child: it is the film that made everything else possible.
Is the Hedwig's Theme print available at 98types?
Yes — the 98types Hedwig's Theme poster features John Williams' iconic Harry Potter leitmotif as sheet music wall art. Hedwig's Theme is one of the most recognised pieces of film music in cinema history — the notes that have announced the beginning of something magical since 2001. Hans Zimmer is composing the score for the new HBO series. From £3 at 98types.
Browse the complete 98types film poster collection and the British movies & TV collection. All from £3 with same-day dispatch.
