The last great moment in the Harry Potter fandom

In June 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 2 premiered, and fans braced for the end of midnight movie premieres, crowded bookstore release parties, and the adventures of the boy wizard they’d grown up with.

J.K. Rowling ended her Harry Potter series in 2007 but the movies kept the story going for another four years. That was more than enough time to keep Harry Potter fans active and engaged. By the time the final movie hit screens, many of those fans still weren’t ready to say goodbye to the world of Harry Potter. It didn’t matter that Orlando had opened a new theme park; Harry Potter fans grew up feeling like the final movie would shut down the door and make way for the franchise.

Twenty years later in 2021, many of the same people will be there. You wishThe series was over. The Harry Potter franchise is now dubbed the “Wizarding World,” to make room for stories like the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them film series, prequels that don’t involve the Boy Who Lived. The Wizarding World has a few mobile games and stage plays, as well as the five-movie Fantastic Beasts series. Helen Mirren hosts a game program hosted by the Oscar-winning actress. There is also a retrospective for the 20-year-anniversary of the original movie.

Between the new material not living up to fans’ expectations and Rowling’s periodic Twitter retcons altering established lore for the sake of faux diversity, the Wizarding World canon already divides the fanbase. J.K. Rowling’s openly transphobic views have soured many fans’ affection for the books, while shedding some light on the more dated tropesRowling was integral to the creation of the original series. Rowling was integral to the original series. But Rowling and Warner Bros. continue to chug out Wizarding World content that doesn’t explore stories that fans are interested in, or even expand on the diversity that Rowling’s Twitter posts kept teasing.

Rowling is adamant about her transphobia. What started as occasional one-off “middle-aged moments” soon became defensive essays full of harmful stereotypes. Many former Harry Potter lovers have disowned anything that has to do with Rowling or Harry Potter, regardless of how distant Rowling may be from any particular project. People have taken different approaches to this issue. They may swear off Potter or limit themselves to fan material. But the fact remains, Rowling’s stances have soured a significant percentage of a fandom that once saw her as a beacon of social good.

The last golden moment of the Harry Potter fandom wasn’t the release of the final movie, though. The announcement of Pottermore, an interactive reading website. It was disappointing compared with what the fans expected when it finally arrived. The fandom gathered together for several months before the unveiling, with the hope of keeping Harry Potter alive. They also enjoyed the excitement of the future of a Harry Potter fandom. The site was intended to be the go-to source for information and behind-the-scenes notes direct from Rowling’s desk. This site was created to preserve Harry Potter’s lore.

But Rowling’s quest to preserve the magic ravenously devoured what made Harry Potter special. Rowling’s openly transphobic rhetoric was the sledgehammer that finally smashed the fandom, but the warning signs were evident even before that.

Harry Potter and The Building Anticipation

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A month before Harry Potter was released, there was a hint that the films would not end. Part 2 of Deathly Hallows. This was in the form of an inter-internet hunt. Various Harry Potter fansites, like LeakyCauldron and Mugglenet, laid out the clues to the ultimate reveal, displaying coordinates, which when plugged into SecretStreetView.com, led to locations significant to Rowling’s life or the book series. Every location had a different letter. Salem, Massachusetts had an “E,” while King’s Cross had an “T,” and so on. In just 10 days, new coordinates were discovered by a fansite, which then revealed new letters. Blogs speculated about the meaning of the letters as they accumulated. What if there was a movie? Could “MORE” actually mean “Multiplayer Online Roleplay Experience”?

On June 23, 2011, Rowling announced the project: Pottermore, an “online reading experience unlike any other,” where fans could “share, participate in, rediscover, and help shape the world.” The excitement continued with another internet scavenger hunt that sent fans searching for beta access codes, scouring designated websites for “Magic Quills” that would prompt Potter-trivia questions. Participants who answered the correct questions were awarded a code that allowed them early access. Many people searched the internet for solutions to difficult questions such as “How many Eeylops Owl Emporium signs are there?” Multiply 49, stayed awake late to accommodate UK time and eagerly awaited their confirmation emails. That was the last unifying moment for Potter fans.

At that point, no one knew just what an “online reading experience” entailed. Harry Potter fan sites were engaged, which gave the website its mysterious aura. This suggested Pottermore might be the perfect hub for fandom. The perfect extension of a favorite fantasy world, it seemed: Interactive experiences, connections to other fans, and an opportunity to explore the books as never before.

Harry Potter and The Cynical Mart for Merchandise Mart

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Pottermore delivered on some of those promises. Users explored the books chapter by chapter, with interactive illustrations that contained links to new information, such as Professor McGonagall’s sad backstory, and in-depth looks into the less prominent school houses. A Sorting Quiz was included, as were minigames to help with spellcasting and potion-making. But the true intent of Pottermore wasn’t JustIt is possible to identify the different properties of each type of wand wood.

In fact, the whole point of the site — which Rowling didn’t really puff up in the announcement video — was to sell the books digitally for the first time. Prior to Pottermore, the Potter books weren’t legally available in digital form. Rowling had digital rights to the Potter books when she first published them. This allowed her to keep most of the income from eventual digital sales. The e-books are now available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Sony — which all directly download from Pottermore, putting the cash right in Rowling’s pocket without sending it through publishers Scholastic or Bloomsbury first. The site’s full launch was delayed from October 2011 to April 2012 in order to account for the volume of e-book orders. Also, this was also the time when the Hunger Games novel surged to prominence in the digital books market.

If Pottermore had just been a quiet singular page on Rowling’s website with an option to buy the books, it would not have generated nearly as much hype. In fact, on the site’s first day of beta access, Charlotte Williams of the Guardian wrote, “I think Pottermore has the potential to be a lasting focal point for the ‘Harry Potter’ brand. I think the fact that it incorporates new content, a social networking element, and is also the only place people will be able to buy the eBooks will prove to be quite a potent combination.”

But in 2021, Pottermore has morphed into WizardingWorld.com, a site that’s removed the interactive illustrations and minigames in favor of cut-and-dried wiki info, Sorting and Patronus quizzes, and a Twitter account that adds fun facts (for instance, about wizards shitting themselves) to the lore. Even though the original Pottermore was heralded as something “for the fans,” there was always a disconnect between the glow of a fan haven and the corporate practices that kept the Potter wheels turning.

Harry Potter and the Copyright Injunction

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Rowling claimed that she loved her fans and promoted Pottermore on sites like Mugglenet, LeakyCauldron, and Mugglenet. But Warner Bros. was serving cease and desist orders since the 2000s. The order sought to close down all things, including murals of Hogwarts being used for Hindu religious festivals and comics published in military newspapers. Rowling filed a lawsuit against RDR Books in 2007 for Rowling’s intention to publish a physical copy the Harry Potter Lexicon. This reference site and companion book was intended to be used as a guide. Just the previous year, Rowling had praised the online encyclopedia of her work and awarded it a “J.K. Rowling Fan Site Award.”

Not all of those legal disputes panned out — the mural, for instance, was determined to be not for profit, therefore legally allowable. After suing American computer programmer G. Norman Lippert for digitally publishing fanfiction in which Harry’s eldest son James starts his first year at Hogwarts, Rowling more or less stopped outwardly trying to shut down fan-created projects. Still, Warner Bros., which owns the theatrical rights to the property, continues to make headlines, cracking down on Harry Potter-themed events because of “unauthorized commercial activity.”

You could not buy Potter merchandise in bookstores and pop-culture shops like FYE. Today, there are many options for Vans, Pottery Barn merchandise, and Funko figurines of every obscure character. Wizarding World has new content, so you can go to Wizarding World’s theme parks and buy authentic robes.

That kind of commodified form of Harry Potter appreciation didn’t exist back when the Harry Potter books were first published. From the early days of internet, the Potter fandom exploded with fan-generated content. MySpace was the platform for Wizard Rock. There were many fan-run conventions. Popular YouTube videos like Potter Puppet Pals or A Very Potter Musical have become integral to the Harry Potter fandom. Fansfiction was everywhere, right from MyImmortal fanfiction to career-launching fics.

Harry Potter was born online, unlike older fandoms such as Star Wars or Star Trek which began offline but were adapted online. There are exceptions to this rule, such as book launches and movie premieres. But so much of Harry Potter’s fandom experience is now through the internet. It wasn’t the only fandom to emerge concurrently with the internet, but the sheer size and impact of Harry Potter makes it the most notable example.

The web made access to the franchise’s community easier and faster. The internet was a great extension of the internet, as it eliminated long waits for movies and books. Online forums and other specialized websites made it easy to find fans without having to attend conventions. These forums and sites gave rise to central social media such as LiveJournal, Fanfiction.net and eventually Tumblr. However, there was still a strong focus on fan groups coming together and connecting in ways almost impossible to do in an age before the internet.

In tandem with this robust online environment, official movies, books and various real-life experiences, such as studio tours and games, existed. Rowling’s website was sparse, however most of the web content was made and maintained by her fans. Pottermore added an official stamp of approval to the web wilderness. The weird internet was shifting in the late 2010s. Pottermore shows what happened to one fandom.

Harry Potter and the Burgeoning Fans Divide

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The Harry Potter fandom hasn’t gone away. It is still being discovered by new fans, while existing Harry Potter fandom members are celebrating the phenomenon with edits and fan films. But there is a disconnect in the new Potter media that’s come out since 2011, a divide between what the fans longed for and what Rowling bestows.

Any new Potter movie will have a decent success rate if it has a loyal fan base. The Fantastic Beasts movie haven’t been as successful as the adaptations of Rowling’s books, but the first two earned a significant $812 million and $654 million at the box office, respectively. Stage play Harry Potter and Cursed ChildIt was an enormous success in the UK as well as on Broadway. However, Harry Potter lovers continue to be vocal in their rejection of the original books. Rowling herselfInstead, focus on the nostalgic feeling of being part of the fandom. Some Harry Potter fans have remade themselves as an independent community, much like Twilight’s fandom.

Part of that response just stems from readers’ changing expectations for new YA books. Movements like We Need Diverse Books and Diversity in YA have helped boost representation across middle-grade and young–adult books — never Rowling’s strongest suit. If Harry Potter had stayed in the ’90s, the franchise might just be considered a relic of its time. The newest content continues to be dominated by a white male cast. Women are limited to acting as love interest and villains, while the main characters in the new material remain predominantly male.

The lack of material between five and five years makes it even more challenging to reckon with. Part 2 of Deathly HallowsAnd the debut of 2016 Cursed ChildAnd Fantastic Beasts and where to find them. In the interim, fans who’d noticed the original series’ lack of diversity had already taken matters into their own hands. Rowling did not have any control over the rich fanon that grew. During those five years, the only “official” content came in the form of Pottermore, and the site’s occasional backstory facts didn’t interfere with the lively fan-created expansion of Rowling’s world. It was easy to forget that the site was corporate. Rowling continued to write crime fiction under her own name.

When she did return to new official content, the output of one writer couldn’t compete with an entire newly crafted version of the world online. YouTube’s funky DIY musical, created by college students in Minnesota and made available free of charge, will always be better for younger fans than polished productions with expensive tickets and lengthy queues. Although tickets were advertised as being $20 each, very few people could afford them and the resale price went up to thousands. Many of the people who’d grown up with the franchise were growing out of it. Their experiences and relationship to Harry Potter had evolved, but the new official content hadn’t evolved with them.

Across the online world, the Harry Potter fandom has fractured in new ways, both around the newer official content, and about Rowling’s online persona. While fandoms do not split over the introduction or removal of material, it is common for them to be so vocal and visible outside the community. And Rowling’s controversial stances — not just the transphobia, but stances like supporting Johnny Depp’s casting in the Fantastic Beast series after abuse allegations — have further fractured and politicized the fandom. Some Harry Potter supporters still cling to Rowling’s words. Other fans separate the fandom experience from the actual textual one. Others recognize the fact that the ending of the saga occurred in 2011 and are happy to leave it alone.

Harry Potter: The Fans Who Moved On

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Ah, but that summer of 2011 — what a glorious summer it was to be a Harry Potter fan. You can find more information at www.amazon.com. Part 2 of Deathly Hallows marked the end of the movies, it seemed like the whole world was talking about the series’ legacy. It was celebrated. It hadn’t outlived it’s welcome. Rowling’s tweets were harmless. Although fans were disappointed to hear the end of their favourite story, it was not what Rowling intended. inviting discourseYou can argue endlessly about the necessity to distinguish art from artist.

It was only for a brief time that it became possible to imagine Pottermore as the ultimate final addition to the Potter franchise. A soft epilogue to Potter movies and books, it would allow the wizardry to continue, while also giving the opportunity to go on with our lives.

There isn’t quite a “together,” these days, just a divide on what it means to love Harry Potter, on a scale that ranges from embracing every new word, spinoff, and Funko Pop to embracing and living in nostalgia for an era of mutual celebration through online discussions, fics, and the fan-made videos. Some fans can love Harry Potter without loving its creator, while others say the active harm she’s doing has completely rotted away any lingering affection for the series that once gave them purpose.

Harry Potter has become a successful franchise. Its fans have too, and some of them have decided it wasn’t worth taking along with them.