Like the books, each installment in the Harry Potter series represents one year of school at Hogwarts. This means Harry is 11 years old in the first film and 17 by the last one. The seventh and eighth movies are a two-part extrapolation of the seventh book and are fittingly titled “Part 1” and “Part 2.” The ninth, tenth, and eleventh films are based on an in-universe textbook called “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” written by Rowling and published in 2001. The fictional author of “Fantastic Beasts” inside the Harry Potter universe is named Newt Scamander, and the three “Fantastic Beasts” movies are wholly original screenplays about that character. They are set in the 1920s, whereas the Harry Potter films are set in the present.
The films were released in the following order:
- “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” (2001) (called “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” in North America)
- “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: The Secrets of Dumbledore” (2022)
The first two films were directed by Chris Columbus, the third by Alfonso Cuarón, the fourth by Mike Newell, and the other seven all by David Yates. All but “Order of the Phoenix,” “Where to Find Them,” and “Crimes of Grindelwald” were written by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Steve Kloves.
There were supposed to be five “Beasts” movies, but interest has come to a dead halt.