How to watch the Harry Potter movies in order

Mixi March 08, 2021 | 22:36

You are in the mood for a magical marathon of the Harry Potter movies, and want to binge-watch them in order. Right below is a guide on watching the Harry Potter movies in order of release and chronological events.

Harry Potter. Photo: Pinterest

General Look on Harry Potter Movies

All you die-hard witches, wizards, and muggles out there never get tired of Harry Potter. And right now, given that the coronavirus pandemic has pushed back a lot of new 2020 movie release dates, it’s the absolute perfect time for Potterheads (and newcomers to the world of Harry Potter) to take that leap onto Platform 9 and 3/4 and head to Hogwarts.

Needless to say, the films, which were released between 2001 and 2011, have become a pop culture staple thanks to Harry, Ron and Hermione's adventurous coming-of-age storylines. After the successful release of the Harry Potter films, author J.K. Rowling announced that she would write and produce five prequel films based on her book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which takes place in a new wizarding era. The first Fantastic Beasts film premiered in 2016, followed by a second movie in 2018. Now, the third installment is set to be released in November 2021.

While waiting patiently for part three of Fantastic Beasts to come out, you can always schedule a movie marathon and watch the films in order. Need help doing so? No problem, we've got you covered below (though which Harry Potter movies we think should be ranked the best is another question). All you need is to kick back and relax in front of the TV and make sure the butterbeer is stocked.

Harry Potter movies in release order

No complicated interweaving timelines to deal with if you watch the Potter movies in release date order – it’s two distinct series, with an (as-yet) incomplete set of prequels following on from the parent franchise. That means there’s no need to introduce any kind of 'Machete Order' – yet – though if we get some massive revelation in Fantastic Beasts 3, 4 and 5, that may change. Fantastic Beasts 3 starts shooting early in 2020, ahead of a 2021 release.

It’s also interesting to note that there are more Harry Potter movies than there are books, with seventh instalment The Deathly Hallows split into two parts (a trick repeated by Twilight and The Hunger Games) because there was so much story to fit in. We’re sure the extra box office didn’t hurt either…

* Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

* Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

* Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

* Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

* Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)

* Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

* Fantastic Beasts 3 (2021)

Harry Potter movies in chronological order

Photo: TechRadar

Now, here's where things get slightly tricky. The Fantastic Beasts films are prequels, so they take place decades before the events of the original Harry Potter movies.

Those take place during Harry's time at Hogwarts, so each book/movie corresponds to a school year. The final two movies split the final book and school year.

Here's the list of Harry Potter movies and the year in which they are set:

* Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (1926)

* Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (1927)

* Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (1991-92)

* Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1992-93)

* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1992-94)

* Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (1994-95)

* Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (1995-96)

* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (1996-97)

* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (1997-98)

* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (1997-98)

And if the Harry Potter stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, is made into a movie, it would fall at the end of both the release order and chronological order since it's set circa 2017, according to Tomsguide.

Harry Potter movies ranked

As with the Harry Potter books, opinions on which entries in the series are the best are incredibly varied and subjective. Indeed, ranking the Harry Potter movies by their IMDb user scores reveals remarkable consistency in fan response, with all eight installments clustered between 7.4 and 8.1 out of 10.

The two Fantastic Beasts movies are noticeably the least loved entries in the Wizarding World, a fact perhaps reflected by the second movie's drop in the box office. The most successful of the two, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, made more money than just one of the Potter movies (Prisoner of Azkaban), but seeing as it had 12 years of inflation on its side, it’s debatable whether it actually outperformed the earlier film, as reported by techradar.

* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – 8.1

* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – 7.9

* Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – 7.7

* Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 – 7.7

* Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – 7.6

* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – 7.6

* Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – 7.5

* Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – 7.4

* Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – 7.3

* Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – 6.6

Fantastic Beasts 3 release date is July 15, 2022

The Fantastic Beasts 3 release date is set for July 15, 2022, so by the time the film hits cinemas, it’ll be over three years since the debut of The Crimes of Grindelwald. That’s rather longer than the two years that elapsed between the first two Fantastic Beasts movies, but it wasn’t all caused by COVID-19.

Warner Bros was seemingly pulling out all the stops to ensure that Fantastic Beasts 3 release date remained in 2021. But then, another blow to production: Johnny Depp was asked to leave the cast following a public court battle with a UK newspaper. The fallout left the studio moving the release date to July 2022 where it currently sits.

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