Originally published on July 3, 2017
On June 26, 1997, the first Harry Potter book was published.
This past week marked the 20-year anniversary and all corners of the Internet
were celebrating in different ways. The prevalence of one particular fantasy
series showing up on YouTube and Facebook equally got me thinking about how
interesting the series is, and has become, in terms of our culture.
Here’s the strangest thing about all of this: I haven’t
thought about Harry Potter in a long time. I haven’t even seen Fantastic Beasts yet. I haven’t read the
books in a couple years and every time I see the theory video on YouTube, I’ve
already heard of that theory. I’ve been more focused on other series; Harry
Potter was the big thing of my middle school years. The final book came out
when I was in fifth grade. I saw nearly every movie in theaters. The copies of
the books in the school library literally had my name over and over again. Harry
Potter is what got me into Starkid, and Puppet Pals were some of my first
YouTube videos. The idea of a magical boarding school was what inspired my
first original stories. I’ve heard it said Harry Potter is the “gateway
fandom”, and in my case that is definitely true.
Harry Potter is one of the most prevalent franchises in pop
culture, up there with others like Star Wars. Words have found their way into
the dictionary, House designations are used like personality tests, and there
are even classes at universities about the series. My high school still runs a
Harry Potter themed summer camp. I still wear my Harry Potter t-shirts. Even
when I read fanfiction for different fandoms, there is inevitably a Hogwarts
AU. Most people sort of understand the basics of Harry Potter, even if they
haven’t read/watched any. They know who Voldemort is. They recognize actors. They’ve
heard of “Muggles”. I can’t wait for it to turn 30 or 40 years old and be
studied in-depth, even more than it is now.
What I like most about Harry Potter, as a series overall, is
that is it so easy to slip in and out of the world. In many ways, the rules of
the world are as familiar to us as the regular rules of the world. And that is
what makes it different from other franchises. Star Wars is clearly in a galaxy
far, far away, but the Wizarding World is here, now. The franchise is not dead.
It is true that the books and movies of the original story are finished, but
the sequel play is still running. There are the spin-off movies which introduce
Americans to their own version of the Wizarding World. And the fandom will take
a long time to die. There are still more theories, still more fanfiction, still
more fan creations (and that will continue until we get more canon
Marauders-era material!). The Harry Potter generation may be growing up, but
that does not mean we have left our childhood-shaping heroes behind.
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