R.I.P. Harry Potter — Nov. 16, 2001, to July 15, 2011

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This article was published 09/07/2011 (5179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

— 1 Corinthians 15:26

 

The Harry Potter movie saga, which, for a decade, championed love in the shadow of death, has reached its own end.

The blockbuster film franchise, worth $6.3 billion in box-office grosses (and counting) will be mourned by fans worldwide when its final chapter is released July 15.

Potter leaves behind more than 400 million books sold, which tell the coming-of-age tale of a wizard whose parents’ murder at the hand of a dark lord sets the stage for a seven-volume series of adventures; a retail-products market topping $7 billion; and a proud matriarch in creator J.K. Rowling, whose talent and imagination made her the world’s first billionaire author.

The series’ bequest is its indelible mark on pop culture, with Potter having become the benchmark to which all other book-to-film franchises are held — from Twilight to the forthcoming Hunger Games adaptation — and a legion of fans whose pulses will forever quicken at the utterance of Harry’s name.

“My experience on the day the movie is released publicly will be one of excitement . . . coloured with a sort of finality and a heaviness, knowing that there’s nothing like this to look forward to in the future,” says 24-year-old Emerson Spartz, who dedicated his adolescence to fostering a fan community on Mugglenet.com.

The series is survived by titular performer Daniel Radcliffe —- whose personification of Potter transformed him from an obscure 11-year-old into a respected thespian with a personal fortune exceeding $44 million — as well as co-stars Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Tom Felton, who grew up on screen and now face adult careers full of question marks.

With the series’ swan song, those awaiting an heir apparent include such fans as Vancouver’s Kim Peterson, 29, who once stayed at London’s dodgiest hostel so she could crash the King’s Cross movie set of the first film; Amherstburg, Ont., student Chelsea Coombe, 19, who languished for hours in theatre queues in order to see every Potter movie on opening night; and Ottawa’s Scott Oswald, 33, who will remember Harry every time he carves “Nimbus 2000” into a broomstick — a habit to which he’s grown impishly accustomed.

Harry will live on through Chilliwack, B.C.’s Susan Brown, who, at age 13, camped outside the local cinema for 11 hours — red cape and plush owl in tow — in order to see the books’ beloved characters brought to life for the first time; through Victoria college student Emmy Chahal, whose passion for Potter once took her all the way to Scotland, where she was personally introduced to Rowling; and through Sherwood Park, Alta., teen Rhiannon Howell-Matwichuk, who, every summer, rereads the entire Harry Potter saga, which she credits for sparking her love of literature.

The series’ cultural legacy includes a $250-million theme park in Florida, a media empire spanning everything from video games to action figures, an International Quidditch Association with members from more than 300 schools worldwide, and a thriving fan-fiction community dedicated to continuing Rowling’s stories for years.

The dearly departed series will be missed by Edmonton’s Joel Rivero, a 34-year-old lab technologist who snuck out of a wedding reception in order to line up for the release of Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows: and by Nick Zekulin, a University of Calgary professor who has come to collect all 67 translated volumes of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone; and by Carleton University Quidditch founder Andrea Hill, who has followed the phenomenon for half her young life.

“For a decade, I was part of a ‘Harry Potter culture.’ People of all ages were excited about Harry’s journey, and everyone knew about the books,” says Hill, a 21-year-old currently living in Kelowna, B.C.

With Rowling having all but ruled out an eighth novel, private eulogies for the series will be held around the world this month.

— Postmedia News