Revisiting The FAILURE of The Harry Potter Franchise | Video Essay

In this Video Essay we break down how the Harry Potter Franchise went through a controversial downfall. Turning one of Hollywood's biggest and most successful film franchises and turning it into a Fantastic Beasts disaster. We leave no stone unturned and deep dive into everything from diminishing returns in the Fantastic Beasts Franchise, the JK Rowling controversy and why Hogwarts Legacy seems to be the only successful venture into the Wizarding World recently.

Can the original trio of Harry, Ron and Hermoinne come back to save this dwindling franchise?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2015)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher'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)
Hogwarts Legacy (2023)

0:00 - Intro
3:07 - Part 1 (Harry Potter)
14:12 - Part 2 (Fantastic Beasts)
26:06 - Part 3 (JK Rowling)

[FlickShtt]

My hot take: It’s ok for franchisees to die once they’ve reached their main conclusion. Star Wars, Harry Potter, Marvel phase 4 has all been beating a dead horse to try cash in as much as possible on already established storyline / universes rather than leaving them be and building the next big franchise

[hongjiae]

I really thought Fantastic Beasts would be a story about a man who had been outcast from society for being different, who had resigned to the love and company of magical creatures, learning to love humans again and healing from the pain that humans have inflicted on him in the past. And, in the end, even fighting to save humankind. But nope. That story about love did not happen. No character arc for Newt at all. And it could've been such a beautiful story!

[ThomasWarhammer]

The thing that's so frustrating about the Fantastic Beasts films is that the aesthetic is on point. Wizards in early 1900s New York, long coats and hats works so well.

[ewjiml]

The reason why the Harry Potter movies were so successful to me was because each successive film matured with its audience. By the time The Deathly Hallows came out, it had some very mature themes about life and death compared to the earlier films. The films were very unique in that regard. These newer HP films I didn’t even know were related to franchise because the films have been so synonymous with youth. So seeing an adult play the main character made me think it was just another film.

[doloresfraga]

Another important theme of hp was identity. Harry was discovering his family origins, and the world where he belonged. Fantastic beasts could have been about the outcasts of the magic community, the fight for animal creature rights, compassion and heart warming friendships. I always thought that placing Grindelwald on the movie was really a stretch.

[Moeller]

I feel like there could have been an extremely sweet little movie about magic/muggle friendships in Fantasstic Beasts if Eddy Redmayne and Dan Fogler had just been allowed to do what they did best, and they had stuck to a tight and closed plot

[gabrielhart]

Ironically Tina was an auror so was probably the most equipped to stop Grindlewald more than a teacher, baker, poltitan and a zookeeper lmao

[rafaelzamudio]

Here's what I would have done with the franchise:
- Dumbledore vs Grindelwald trilogy
- Fantastic Beast standalone film
- Creation of Hogwarts
- Origins of Azkaban
- Beedle the bard's stories animated film (each story with a different animation and told by a different actor)
- TV show about the Marauders/First War
- TV show about young Voldemort

[natanaga]

It's such a shame because I love the first movie of Fantastic Beasts. Out of all the Harry Potter characters, I relate to Newt the most and it's so heartwarming to see his love and passion for magizoology. I would love to see just Newt going around the world with the plots revolved around him and his struggles educating the magical world at large about how misunderstood those animals were. But nooo, we need to dive around this over-complicated plot about Grindelwald while they made Newt standing around like a useless lamppost because the plot literally has nothing to do with him

[YayForBoo]

I never understood why Fantastic Beast was the direction she chose. All I have ever wanted to see was the Marauders. Loony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs at school with Snape and Lily leading into Voldemort’s first rise. Why was that not the choice?

[joncurtis]

Its dead because HP revolved around a set of 7 books that people held dear in their hearts. Remember how insane the book releases got? I remember getting GoF and OotP and the queues were mental. People seem to forget this. You didnt touch this early on in the video when you should have, harry potter was becoming a thing well before the first film came out. Once those books were finished on screen, so was the franchise.

[jessip]

I really wish we could let franchises go once they've run their course and wrapped up their story. I know a lot of people still enjoy the franchise, but I think a big part of that is that there's not much replacing it. I'm grateful I was able to experience the Harry Potter books/movies as a kid, and I'm sad that the current generation of kids don't have a "legacy series" of their own, just their parents and grandparents moldy old stories repackaged over and over and over again. Like thrice reheated pizza.

[sloesty]

The first fantastic beasts and where to find them movie is actually really entertaining and stands on its own legs perfectly fine. Honestly, the two sequels have left a sour taste, but the first one, i can actually rewatch and have a great time every time i do so.

[CaseyP]

What I thought was so strange about the fantastic beast is the fact that no one asked for it. I remember when I was a teenager going online to read fanfictions and there was thousands of them. The storie about the Marauders, the next generation or the origin of Voldemort were among the most common themes. The studio producers didn't even needed to guess which stories the people wanted to be created next, they litteraly could have gone on google to find out

[TECfan]

I think they just couldn't choose what they wanted to focus on and too much was happening at once. I think the Fantastic Beasts movies should have been 2 separate series. Fantastic Beasts with Newt going to different countries and going on adventures finding the beasts. And then a different series with the first wizarding world, Dumbledore and Grindelwald. I never understood why they bothered with it being called Fantastic Beasts when that was totally put on the back burner. They could have been cool stories on their own.

[miraj]

I do think that it was very much the books that created the hype around the wizarding world, the movies "just" expanded on it. While Rowling wasn't writing high literature, she was excellent at world building. I regularly found myself returning to the books for the fillers, the descriptions of life at Hogwarts, small details that made everything come to life.

The problem is: she seems to have forgotten that the world building was what made the series work. If you take that away, what you're left with is a pretty standard good vs. evil tale. Nothing terrible, but nothing special either. Fantastic beasts could have worked if they had allowed comfort and wonder to be priorities instead of mindless action.

Let's be honest, the world is going to shit and signs of that were there long before the first Fantastic Beasts movie was released. People are desperate for distraction and there is a reason why, for example, Ghibli movies got so much attention during lockdown. Not everything has to have a big plot, sometimes it's enough if it makes you happy. They struck gold with Eddie Redmayne, he could have easily carried a miniseries where Newt focuses on a different Beast every episode. It could have been charming, whimsical and expanded on the Harry Potter lore.

Instead we got the action of the last Harry Potter movies without the lead-up. You don't feel for the characters, because you don't know them, you don't care for the world, because it's already chaos, and you don't care how it ends, because, guess what, Harry Potter comes after it, so you kinda already know. The only good things about the Fantastic Beasts films were Eddie Redmayne and Mads Mikkelsen, but sadly they just weren't given enough to work with to actually save the series.

[uhuhuh]

I’m shocked you didn’t talk about the theme parks, their success is literally mind blowing, completely changed the industry

[sophieamandaleitontoomey]

It will never not be funny that JK messed up her own lore and rules in the Fantastic Beasts movies.

[RozalinGaming]

I think your idea of filler is different than what a lot of people think filler is and why people hate it. Coming from anime, filler refers to things that weren't in the original manga or light novel an anime is based on, and is almost always of a significantly lower quality. It's this filler that people don't like, not a distinction between action and non-action.

[jez]

The problem with the Crimes of Grindelwald is not that it is dull and has no plot. The problem is that it makes no sense and has too much plot.