Seven books. Eight movies. Four thousand two hundred and twenty-four pages. An estimated $24,851,000,000 gross income, according to Statistic Brain. Eighteen years. The Harry Potter series can’t seem to help making headlines, and there doesn’t seem to be any letup coming in the next few years.
It’s been eight years since the last Harry Potter book was published and four years since the last Harry Potter movie came out. Yet, not a month goes by without some reference to Harry Potter making the news. On September 1st this past year, J. K. Rowling shared that James Sirius was heading to Hogwarts. The news press after such a small tidbit of information was astounding.
And again, new stories and details are released often on the interactive website Pottermore. Pottermore is a website developed by J. K. Rowling where people can attend Hogwarts, and learn hidden facts about the characters in the series. The world tends to snap to attention to devour the next piece of information Rowling releases about the magical world of Harry Potter.
Even after every single one of the original books were made into movies (with one book becoming two movies), still another Harry Potter movie is coming out. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is premiering on November 18th, 2016. Suffice it to say that it’s one of the most awaited for movies in the upcoming movies.
All of this attention begs the question: How does the Harry Potter hype never die down?
Perhaps it’s the infamous website Tumblr that keeps the Harry Potter fandom thriving. With 30-50 million active users, according to Kafka, it’s no wonder that there are always new relationships to ship or new fanfictions to wonder about.
Conner Wheaton, member of the Harry Potter Club at Bingham High School, said, “I believe the Harry Potter hype never dies down because…magic is what makes the series so wonderful to read, and magic never dies out, no matter how old you get!”
So maybe the magical reason why the Harry Potter series continues to live on and thrive is, indeed, the magic behind the whole series.