Netflix is adding all eight Harry Potter films to its streaming service
All eight Harry Potter films will be available to stream in the UK from today (Wednesday 17 May), Netflix has announced.
On Tuesday (May 16), Netflix UK announced that the hit magic series will be available on its platform from Wednesday.
This is the first time the films based on JK Rowling’s best-selling children’s novels have been offered as a complete collection on a streaming platform.
Previously, fans could only access the films when they were aired on TV or by purchasing or renting them.
For now, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone through to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will only be available on Netflix in the UK and Ireland.
Hogwarts fans in the US can access the film via HBO’s Max streaming platform.
The Harry Potter films are among the most successful franchise films in British cinema. When the final installment was released in 2011, the film broke a UK box office record, grossing £23million in its first weekend.
The release of the first film in 2001 catapulted its young cast of Daniel Radcliffe (Harry), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) to instant global fame.
Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) in The Prisoner of Azkaban
(Warner Bros)
Last year, the three actors reunited with their other castmates for a televised special: 20th Anniversary of Harry Potter: Return to Hogwarts.
Series writer Rowling did not appear, claiming in August that she simply chose not to attend and that this was not a snub from organizers for her controversial views on transgender rights.
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Rowling’s wizarding world was also portrayed in the Fantastic Beasts series, in which British actor Eddie Redmayne portrayed Newt Scamander, a wizard with a penchant for magical creatures.
The series, which has three fantasy films to date, also includes an ensemble cast starring Jude Law as a young Albus Dumbledore, Colin Farrell and Katherine Waterson. After the second film, Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen replaced Johnny Depp in the role of the main antagonist Gellert Grindelwald.
Earlier this year, it was announced that the Harry Potter books would be adapted into television series with an all-new cast and would be published for a full decade.
