Fifteen years ago this week we met a little boy with glasses and a lightening bolt scar on his forehead. He went to a magical school, learned how to fly, made some friends, made some enemies, and went on to defeat one of the worst movie villains of all time. You probably know that his name is Harry Potter, but how well do you know the Harry Potter movies?
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.
Oddly enough, Daniel Radcliffe has proven to be an indie film powerhouse since the Harry Potter films ended. And what a year he’s had: along with a role as a tech genius in Now You See Me 2, he’s played a farting corpse in Swiss Army Man that taught us the nature of being human, and an FBI agent who infiltrates a Neo-Nazi organization in Imperium. Now he’s signed on with Zachary Quinto for a movie about Anonymous and the Mexican cartel Los Zetas.