At the beginning of this month, on September 5th to be exact, the 20th anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States happened. It was an event that elevated the series from a British phenomenon to a worldwide one. Twenty years since that first book and seven since the last Harry Potter movie have done nothing to dull the love for this property, cementing the franchise as a pop culture pillar alongside the likes of Star Wars and Indiana Jones.
This week, author J.K. Rowling teased that she knows the next four things she's writing and that she just hopes she doesn't die before she finishes them. Now we don't know if any of these projects will be in the Wizarding World or part of her Robert Galbraith/Cormoran Strike series or something else entirely. That said, even if she doesn't write any more books in that universe, the Wizarding World is continuing to expand on the big screen in the Fantastic Beasts films and perhaps beyond that.
So, with Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald on the horizon, and in the wake of the killer and revealing final trailer for the film, now seems an appropriate time to revisit potential Harry Potter spinoffs that would further expand the Wizarding World once Fantastic Beasts completes its 5-film run. We know we'll be learning more about Dumbledore, Grindelwald and Nicolas Flamel soon, but there are plenty of other topics worth exploring. Some of these are no-brainers and others are about giving Potterheads something truly different than they've seen before. Here are the 7 Harry Potter spinoffs we'd love to see.
The Goblin Rebellions/Giant Wars
Harry Potter was a rubbish student, but to be fair, Professor Binns, the History of Magic professor, was a boring teacher whose lectures on the most exciting subjects in magical history were sure to lull anyone not named Hermione to sleep. It's a pity, because some of the topics he was covering sounded fascinating, particularly the Goblin Rebellions and the Giant Wars. We don't know much about these bloody conflicts, but what we do know makes us want to see more -- hey, they both sound very cinematic! The Goblin Rebellions saw the goblins rise up against the prejudice and discrimination by witches and wizards in the 17th and 18th centuries and the Giant Wars was a war with giants, so either would be great. We've seen a Wizarding War, but it would be interesting to see a spinoff give us our own History of Magic lesson and show us how these pivotal conflicts involving other magical species shaped the Wizarding World as we know it.
The Aurors
Among the most badass wizarding jobs, alongside Dragon keeper and Professional Quidditch player, is Auror. Only the most elite can take on the dangerous job of catching dark wizards. That makes this an obvious choice for a Harry Potter spinoff. There's a lot of ways an Auror movie could go, too. We could follow the legendary Mad-Eye Moody during his glory days in the first Wizarding War. I could also see a really dark tale of the Aurors hunting Voldemort in Albania after his disappearance. An Auror spinoff could go to the future with Harry and Ron as Aurors. That seems unlikely, as Harry's story has been told. Still, it's hard not to want to see some Auror action. Voldemort may be gone, but threats are still out there, otherwise this job wouldn't exist. So, seeing some new Aurors in a post-Voldemort world hunting down dark wizards would make for a killer Harry Potter spinoff. This could even work as a TV series if a Wizarding World streaming service comes along.
The Founders
Over the course of the Harry Potter series, we learned a great deal about the four great wizards who founded Hogwarts and the traits they valued in students. But hearing about them and seeing them are two different things and there's a lot we still want to know about Godric Gryffindor, Salazar Slytherin, Helga Hufflepuff and Rowena Ravenclaw. We know they were some of the greatest witches and wizards of their age, but how did they meet and how did they come together and decide to form a school? A spinoff would obviously also feature their falling out, when Salazar Slytherin's bigotry saw him leave the school, sabotaging it in his wake with the creation of the Chamber of Secrets. A movie about the founding of Hogwarts could also explore the Wizarding World in the Middle Ages, showing us what things were like long before the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy and how the magically adept interacted with the rest of the world. Maybe we'd even get to see a young Merlin in Slytherin House.
A Quidditch Sports Movie
Quidditch is an absurd game (150 points for the Snitch, really?), with extremely lax regulation and where magic, rampant cheating and how good of a broom a player can afford often creates an unfair playing field. That said, the game is still a blast to watch and just like real-life sports, we get caught up in the drama of it all, feeling heartache when the opposing team dunks the Quaffle in our hoop and elation when our seeker catches the Snitch. So Quidditch is ripe for a great sports drama that has all the trappings of the Wizarding World. We've seen the drama played out on the amateur level, but the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire film adaptation denied us getting to see a professional match. Therefore, a Quidditch spinoff could follow a team over the course of a season as they go for the cup and who better to follow than Ginny Weasley who went on to play professionally for the all-female Holyhead Harpies team after Hogwarts.
Hogwarts After The Second Wizarding War
A lot of the entries on this list are prequels, as there is a ton of magical history in this world that we'd love to see explored. Yet it is also worth looking to the future and seeing how the events of the Harry Potter story changed the Wizarding World. There would be no better place than Hogwarts to explore this. A spinoff film set at Hogwarts could go the Cursed Child route and follow Harry Potter's son, but many fans would rather cast reducto on that particular story; therefore, maybe following the children of our heroes isn't the best way to go. A spinoff could also follow some new kids and see what lessons were learned from the Second Wizarding War. Is the history of Voldemort taught so people know not to repeat it? Were the houses ever united "as they once were meant to be?" There are a lot of stories that could be told against the Hogwarts backdrop that also give us an idea of how the Wizarding World might change in the future.
The Marauders
Of all the Harry Potter spinoffs requested by fans, managing mischief with the Marauders is the one that probably gets the most love. Part of what is so universal about the Harry Potter story is that it follows a group of young friends at school together and a spinoff featuring the Marauders: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew would do just that. Watching these pranksters exploring Hogwarts and creating the Marauders Map would be a blast. We could also see James and Lily and the regrettable bullying of Snape. Also, seeing how they became Animagi would be pure comedy, as it is an arduous and incredibly difficult process that involves, among other things, keeping a leaf in your mouth for a month. In addition to the fun camaraderie of these close friends, a Marauders spinoff would also carry with it a dark and tragic undertone, knowing the doom that awaits these four with Peter's betrayal and that by the end of the Second Wizarding War, not a one of the Marauders is alive.
Another Wizarding School
Like Harry Potter himself, we were all intrigued when Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire introduced other wizarding schools to the mythology. The fact there were not only other wizarding schools out there, but that they were so different was exciting. Durmstrang and Beauxbatons were cool, and it would be great to see a story set in another wizarding school outside of Europe. There are eleven major schools and thus plenty of options. To differentiate enough from what we've seen at Hogwarts, a spinoff film set at either Mahoutokoro in Japan, the El Dorado-esque Brazilian school Castelobruxo or the largest of all wizarding schools Uagadou in Africa are the ways to go. These schools are all unique in their own ways, with Uagadou students using hand gestures to cast spells. A spinoff centered on another wizarding school would bring different cultures into the fold while expanding out the magical world of this story. If nothing else, I do think there's a possibility that we see Beauxbatons in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald apparates into theaters (but not Hogwarts!) on November 16th.
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