A helpful summary guide to streaming all the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies.
The Harry Potter film franchise, based on British author J.K. Rowling’s beloved novels, recently turned 20, and celebrated its legacy with the HBO special, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts. However, the series is anything but a relic of the past. New films continue to be made from Rowling’s Harry Potter-adjacent series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, with the newest entry, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, opening this week.
Meanwhile, the films and novels of the original series remain highly popular, attracting a new generation of viewers while continuing to enchant original fans. Whether you are new to the series, love the video game spinoff Hogwarts Legacy, or just love revisiting your old favorites, many streaming options are available. Here is a helpful guide to where you can find each of the films streaming.
Where to Stream: HBO Max / Fubo / Peacock / Spectrum / Direct TV
This opening chapter in the saga — also known by its British title, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone — introduces Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson) as they discover both delights and darkness during their first year at the fantastical Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Chris Columbus, who had had scored blockbuster family hits with Home Alone and Mrs. Doubtfire, directed this first entry in the franchise. Columbus had proven his facility with directing kids and he got charismatic performances out of the young actors that would set up the series for long-term success.
Critics and fans alike found Rowling’s story world fully realized on screen in all its enchanting splendor. The movie also established the series’ hallmark of stuffing the cast with famous British actors, with Richard Harris, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, John Hurt, Julie Walters, and John Cleese in just the first entry alone. The movie was an enormous hit, earning more than a billion dollars globally and setting up Warner Bros. for a long and profitable run.
Where to Stream: HBO Max / Fubo / Peacock / Spectrum / Direct TV
The second movie in the franchise chronicles Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s second year at Hogwarts and finds our fearless trio working to unearth another mystery that threatens the school. New characters include a vain Dark Arts professor, Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh); the intolerant Lucius Malfoy (Jason Isaacs), father of Harry’s nemesis, Draco (Tom Felton); and the Malfoy’s House-Elf, Dobby, a CGI character that Harry frees from the Malfoys, earning his eternal gratitude.
Released only a year after Sorcerer’s Stone, the sequel was also a big hit, providing another welcome dose of magic to holiday audiences. Although some viewers and critics find Chamber of Secrets a little too similar in plot and tone to the first movie, it still provides its share of wonderments, including a flying Ford Anglia, an attack by giant spiders, and what many fans consider the most excitingly staged Quidditch match in the series.
Where to Stream: HBO Max / Fubo / Peacock / Spectrum / Direct TV
Rowling turned the series darker as her three protagonists began to grow up and confront the disturbing evils within the Wizarding World.
