Even without much movement from the franchise lately, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is a juggernaut of a thing--we know all about the boy wizard either from reading the books or from watching all the Harry Potter movies in order when they were released, or both. And at this point, it's just too massive of a piece of our recent pop culture to go away any time soon, and even if we tried to forget about it, author JK Rowling's incendiary and problematic commentaries would constantly bring it back up anyway. But it's a moot point--like DC, Marvel, and Star Wars, the Harry Potter franchise is probably going to be a part of our lives for the duration.
The Wizarding World imagines an alternate version of our own world that's full of magical folks hiding in plain sight. As a generational saga, it explores a fascinating story primarily from the perspective of a child who's having to process, while he comes of age, that he's the beginning of the end of a very long drama that had been going for decades before he was born. Harry and his pals, Ron and Hermione, have to deal with some extraordinary situations all while the adults in their lives repeatedly use them as pawns in that greater wizard conflict--something the kids become increasingly aware of as they grow up. Each of the seven books tells the story of one school year at the magical academy of Hogwarts, from when Harry is 11 until he's 18.
The screen version of the Harry Potter franchise is in the midst of a lull at the moment as the planned five-film Fantastic Beasts spin-off series is in limbo after three movies--the only further plans for any on-screen Wizarding World fun right now is the upcoming HBO series that will re-adapt the main book series. But that series is still in the early stages of development and could be several years away.
For now, then, we're left with the mainline Harry Potter flicks and the Fantastic Beasts series as our only screen adaptations of this beloved franchise. So let's take a look at each of these films, in the order in which they were released, and with all the info you need on where to find and stream each of them.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Where to watch: Peacock
The very first Harry Potter movie, from Home Alone director Chris Columbus, is also the one that's most faithful to its source material--though that's largely because the Wizarding World hadn't been fleshed out very much yet, and thus this first book is much shorter than later ones. This film introduces us both to this whole weird world and to an 11-year-old Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe). Harry is a child of destiny because when he was a baby he absorbed some of the power of the evil wizard Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), who had murdered his parents, leaving him with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead and a crappy life with his abusive aunt and uncle. That is, until he's spirited away to the magical school of Hogwarts.
These days, this first Harry Potter film is a bit frustrating--it's a kids movie through and through, without much appeal for adult viewers, and its main cast members were actual children without much acting experience. Though little Rupert Grint, as Ron Weasley, is the big exception--he really carries this one. Luckily, Radcliffe and Emma Watson (Hermione) don't take very long to improve their craft.
The Harry Potter movie franchise is pretty expansive--here's where you can stream all 11 of the films.
Where to watch: Peacock
Harry returns to Hogwarts for a second year, and things quickly get weird after some unknown person opens the mysterious Chamber of Secrets beneath the school and frees something terrible. This sequel, released almost exactly one year after the first and once again directed by Columbus, is more confident and comfortable with itself than Sorcerer's Stone was, and it's got a more serious tone rather than simply carrying on with the first film's incessant whimsy.
And, perhaps most importantly, Radcliffe and Watson find their footing as Harry and Hermione. Chamber of Secrets is akin to a TV show finding its rhythm in Season 2.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Where to watch: Peacock
This third film sees a new threat emerge when Harry returns to school--a purported old Voldemort supporter named Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped from Azkaban Prison and may well have plans to murder Harry. Black was said to have been close friends with Harry's parents before betraying them--Sirius is even Harry's godfather.
Prisoner of Azkaban may be the most divisive in the series. The split on this one tends to lie between people who read the books, who are understandably frustrated by certain key changes, and people who didn't. But director Alfonso Cuaron delivered what still stands as the best Harry Potter film in terms of raw filmmaking craft, and it's also got the most distinctive look of them all thanks to Cuaron's docudrama aesthetic.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)
Where to watch: Peacock
We got a much-needed expansion of the Wizarding World in this fourth film, which is all about the Triwizard Tournament, a competition between Hogwarts and two other European wizard schools that brings a massive influx of new and interesting folks to our favorite old castle. Each of the three schools is supposed to be represented by a single student chosen by the Goblet of Fire, but the Goblet seemingly goes rogue and selects Harry as a fourth contestant, even though he isn't even old enough. The lone Harry Potter flick from director Mike Newell is more slick and glossy than Azkaban was--but the Goblet of Fire book was nearly the same length as the previous three books combined, which led to some major omissions that fans are still annoyed by to this day.
Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix (2007)
Where to watch: Peacock
Director David Yates took over on this fifth film, and he's been at the reins ever since--he directed the last four mainline Harry Potter movies and all three Fantastic Beasts flicks. And it was just in time, too, because the Triwizard Tournament was where the overall franchise plot started ramping up. This time out, an obnoxious new teacher named Dolores Umbridge (Imelda Staunton) is undermining all of the kids' attempts to prepare for Voldemort's inevitable offensive, leading them to form Dumbledore's Army, which meets in secret to practice defensive spells that Umbridge refuses to teach them. This was the first Harry Potter to leave out the quidditch sequences from the books, which was a great choice because those parts rarely add much substance--with the World Cup scene from Goblet of Fire being one of the few actually essential ones.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Where to watch: Peacock
Things are getting serious now. Voldemort's evil Death Eaters are making moves across the Wizarding World, and the always-irritating Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) has been tasked with doing something terrible. Meanwhile, Hogwarts is feeling less and less like a refuge from the madness of the rest of the world. Half-Blood Prince is essentially the beginning of the third act of this series, because this is the point where Harry's enemies have finished planning their moves and are now executing all of them--and it's a thrilling shift for this film.
Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 (2010 and 2011)
Where to watch: Peacock
We could treat these as separate movies, but they really function as one long film that's been cut in half since Part 1 is all setup. But what a film it is--at over 4.5 hours, the combined Deathly Hallows movie is an exhaustive adaptation of the climactic book that doesn't have to cut the usual corners. And with Yates' practiced hand on the wheel once again, Harry's final quest to destroy Lord Voldemort's soul is a thrilling adventure that concludes with a one-of-a-kind battle scene that nearly levels Hogwarts--it's a rare piece of CGI spectacle that's so singular that there really hasn't been anything else like it outside of this series.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Where to watch: Max
After the main series wrapped up, the next step for the Wizarding World on the big screen was Fantastic Beasts, a new series of prequels that would chart the rise of Voldemort's master, Grindelwald (Colin Farrell), through the eyes of zoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), who studies and cares for all sort of magical creatures. When a bunch of said creatures escape Newt's briefcase while he's in New York, it leads him into the middle of a tense political situation with the local American wizards and some extremists who want to dominate all the non-magic folks. This first film is pretty likable, though some of Newt's hijinks are a little bit silly as part of this otherwise intense story. But what's particularly nice about this film is the worldbuilding--the mainline Harry Potter movies are completely Euro-centric and barely even reference any other parts of the world, and so getting a glimpse of how different the American wizard establishment is, and how they fit alongside the European wizards we know very well, is a very welcome thing.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Where to watch: Max
The shapeshifting Grindelwald, having swapped Colin Farrell's face for Johnny Depp's, escapes from prison and begins his revolution--convincing huge swatches of wizards to stop hiding and demonstrate their clear superiority over regular folks. After everything that went down in the last movie, a young-ish Dumbledore (Jude Law) decides to get involved--he and Grindelwald have a long history together, dating back to a schoolboy romance when they were at Hogwarts as kids. While David Yates is doing great work visually on this one, the plot is just silly--Rowling wrote the screenplays for these movies herself, something she never did with the Harry Potter films, and that probably wasn't the right choice.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
Where to watch: Max
Grindelwald, who looks like Mads Mikkelson this time, responds to his defeat in the last film by attempting to get himself chosen as the new Supreme Leader of the International Confederation of Wizards--through trickery, of course, rather than legitimate means. Dumbledore, meanwhile, is stuck in an awkward spot, because he and Grindelwald cannot harm one another as a result of a romantic blood pact from when they were in school at Hogwarts as teens. But this plot is hard to track and harder to care about. For example, a large part of these movies has focused on a character who turned out to be Dumbledore's secret nephew--this person is original to these movies, and had never been referenced or hinted at in any books. Through three movies, it still isn't clear at all what purpose this character might serve or why Dumbledore would have secret relatives. With no more Fantastic Beasts movies planned for now, stuff like that becomes extra frustrating.
How to watch the Harry Potter Wizarding World movies in timeline order
Fortunately, the Harry Potter franchise timeline order isn't an overly complicated one. While flashbacks occur pretty often--to be expected, given the nature of the story--the movies pretty much take place one after the other. Each Harry Potter film takes place in the order in which it was released, and the same goes for the three Fantastic Beasts movies. Though, of course, the Fantastic Beasts series is a prequel to the Harry Potter series, taking place about 70 years prior to the original 2001 movie. So the chronological order of films is like so:
- Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them (2016)
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
- Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
- 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)
