When young people are asked what their favorite book series is, nine times out of ten people will say Harry Potter. More than 500 million copies of the Harry Potter books have been sold worldwide, and the films made close to eight billion dollars, making the franchise (in my opinion) the most iconic in all of history. Everyone who has read the books, or AT LEAST watched the movies, loves Harry Potter, and the handful of people who don't are the definition of people who judge things that they've never tried.
The peak of people's obsession was in the early 2000's, when both the books, and movies were coming out for the first time. People were addicted, and couldn't get enough of the wizarding world! However, somewhere after the release of the final movie, people like to believe that the global Harry Potter fandom died down (not DIED OUT but DIED DOWN), but actually that's not the case. Fans never got sick of Harry Potter or stopped caring about it, what truly happened is what happens to most things that people are passionate about. People started thinking it wasn't cool, so Harry Potter became something to be ashamed of. No one ever stopped liking Harry Potter because it was no longer popular, but it was something that you kept a secret, or that you only talked about with other Harry Potter fans. The stereotype surrounding it was that it was for nerds, so the true Harry Potter fans crept away into a deep, dark hole, and stayed in hibernation for what everyone thought would be forever.
Nevertheless, in mid-2020, just when everyone needed it the most, Harry Potter made a surprising, and miraculous comeback! It stopped being something people were ashamed of, and became something cool, a staple to our generation. You will never believe the surprise on my face after having a conversation with an extremely popular girl from school about HARRY. POTTER. Something that all my life has been burned into my brain as geeky! It has made an astonishing comeback, and the universal fandom of Harry Potter was able to emerge from the cave, and regroup with society once more. It has shown me that so many of the people who are seen as cool and popular in my school have actually been secret
life-long Harry Potter fans who were to embarrassed to admit it, and this franchise has even gained so much fame that people who never even liked Harry Potter pretend that they do! Me and my friend group spend our walks to and from school sorting different people we know into Hogwarts houses (everyone from school's a Slytherin), and in my classes' free time the teachers put on Harry Potter themed Kahoots! This series of books that has made the childhood of millions spectacular has made an unbelievable recovery, but how? How did it regain popularity so quickly? And why now?
In my opinion, it comes down to three main factors, starting off with Tik Tok. Personally, I am a large anti-TikToker if that is even a thing! I know first-hand how addicting it can be, but that is a subject for an entirely different day! No matter how much I disapprove of this app though, it has brought an entire era back to life. Harry Potter Tik Tok's have taken over everyone's For You pages, because quite frankly, that's where everyone spends their time nowadays more than any other social media app. Even though I don't have Tik Tok, I and my friends spend days sending each other Harry Potter Tik Toks back and forth over Pinterest and let me just tell you they are hilarious! They are what everyone is watching on their phones no matter if they like Harry Potter or not just because they've taken over the app! We've taken the best way of transmitting a message to younger generations in today's society, and filled it with Harry Potter everything, so it's no surprise that it's come back into style and everyone is talking about it.
The next contributing factor to Harry Potter's sudden second wave of success and popularity is oddly enough, everyone's obsession with the iconic Draco Malfoy. He's the 2020 fictional boy of the year and everyone is obsessed with him! The actor who plays him, Tom Felton, who is now in his 30s, has also been the most involved actor from the franchise by far. All of the other actors have taken a back stage seat during this second wave, especially on social media, however Tom Felton has been hosting virtual meet and greets with the old cast, and has been bringing everyone's childhood back to life! So while everyone swoons over Draco Malfoy, they are as well amused by grown up Tom Felton, who is a complete and utter marketing genius.
Now if my hypothesis is correct, the third and final reason why Harry Potter has chosen 2020 to make his reappearance is because this is the year we all needed it more than any. With everything that this year has been, every wrong, terrible, no-good event that has occurred, what we all needed in life was to be transported back to our childhoods. To feel like we were seven years old again having our parents read Harry Potter to us for the first time with not a worry in the world. Reading the books and watching the movies, you get transported away from everything going on in life and you are focused on this made up fantasy world of witches and wizards which seems 1,000 times better than ours and it's spectacular. 2020 was the year we all want to forget, and what better way to do that than with a Harry Potter marathon, am I right? As always, thanks for reading.
Your authoress,
Anneke C.G.
(When people tell me to stop obsessing over Harry Potter)