harry potter

While not exactly a household name, Jason Isaacs has very quietly put together an impressive resume of villains over his 30 years in Hollywood. Anyone who was in high school in the late ’90s will remember him from Mel Gibson’s The Patriot  —  I can’t possibly be the only person who had a lazy substitute history teacher, right?  —  but he’s also worked regularly in film and television, from frequent collaborations with Resident Evil director Paul W.S. Anderson to his most memorable role in the Harry Potter franchise. Often evil, always great.

As limey wizard Newt Scamander continues to traipse about America’s magical underground at the cinema with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, another enchanted British import prepares to cross the Atlantic. Just because mega-selling novels have long since ended, the Harry Potter business hasn’t stopped booming, and its latest gold mine is the stage show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The production has routinely sold out showings at the Palace Theatre in London’s storied West End, and the producers are now gearing up to bring the play stateside in the hopes that their fabulous success will follow them to the Great White Way.

How do you make a successful Harry Potter prequel without Harry Potter? J.K. Rowling’s new spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, travels back nearly 70 years to 1926 before the events of the first Potter movie to tell a whole new story in a new setting with (almost) all new characters. Reviving the magical universe from the second biggest franchise of all time is a pretty risky move, but Fantastic Beasts does a good job of blending the familiar with the new.

J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them won’t just be a five-part return to the magical world of the Harry Potter movies; it has the potential to be groundbreaking for Hollywood diversity.

The very first Harry Potter movie opened 15 years ago next month. Fifteen years. A lot has changed in blockbuster movies over the past decade and a half – superheroes are now front and center, CG has advanced to remarkable degrees, and remakes, prequels and spin-offs are filling the movie theaters. But J.K. Rowling’s magical world was one of the most original series of its time. Before Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone opened on November 18, 2001, the only major movies for kids born in the ‘80s and ‘90s were animated films from Disney and Dreamworks. The 21st Century also brought with it the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings series, but Harry Potter introduced a whole new era of fantasy blockbusters for kids (Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass, Twilight, etc.). It gave millennials the first major family franchise of their generation.

We’ll be returning to J.K. Rowling’s magical world of wizards this November with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and to help get you in the proper spirit, Warner Bros. is re-releasing all eight of the Harry Potter films — in IMAX, no less. There is a catch, of course: The films will only screen for one week, so if you want to see Mr. Potter & Co. on the very-very-big screen, you might want to clear your calendar.

A few weeks ago, Daniel Radcliffe gave a very diplomatic answer when asked if he would ever consider a return to the Harry Potter franchise. And while the actor admitted that he would never close the door to the possibility — for the right script and with the right people involved — it turns out he may not have a franchise to return to. As reported by io9, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling told reporters at the premiere of London stage show Harry Potter and the Cursed Child that her beloved character was done after the events of the play.

Well, I'm not quite Ernie Banks, but to paraphrase the late, great Chicago Cub, "it's a beautiful day for Quidditch, let's play two."

It’s been several years since Muggles had any major new Harry Potter content to enjoy, but after a brief dry period, J.K. Rowling’s world of magic is on the verge of a major comeback. (And just in time; I was beginning to regret this lightning bolt tattoo I got on my forehead.) Potter himself returns in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a two-part West End stage play based on a story by Rowling, and the HPCU (that’s “Harry Potter Cinematic Universe,” y’all, c’mon) returns to big screens this fall with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a prequel to the main Potter franchises based on another book by Rowling.

In case you needed a bit of a cry today, J.K. Rowling has taken to Twitter to share the one little piece of secret information she shared with the late, great actor Alan Rickman to help him better portray Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films. As Rickman previously revealed a few years back, Rowling gave him a piece of advice to help him better understand the complexities of his character, who is far more than the shrewd, dodgy potions master he first appears to be.

It’s been one full day now since the news of Alan Rickman’s passing first surfaced, and while that may be the regulation time period for mourning, say, a casual work acquaintance or distant relative, many are still stinging over the loss of this esteemed actor...

Alan Rickman, the tremendously talented British actor behind such iconic roles as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, has died at the age of 69 following a bout with cancer.