Harry Potter, an orphan who survived Lord Voldemort's killing curse as a baby, spends seven years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and finally destroys Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts. Decades earlier, the magizoologist Newt Scamander is drawn into Albus Dumbledore's fight against the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, which the Fantastic Beasts films leave unfinished. HBO's new series, which retells the books from the start, is set to premiere on December 25, 2026.
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- 2022
No. 01 · 2001 · Film
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone recap
Harry Potter lives in a cupboard under the stairs with his cruel aunt and uncle, the Dursleys. On his eleventh birthday the giant Hagrid tells him he is a wizard, famous for surviving the attack by Lord Voldemort that killed his parents and left him a lightning-bolt scar. At Hogwarts he is sorted into Gryffindor and befriends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, makes an enemy of Draco Malfoy, and turns out to be a natural Seeker at Quidditch. The friends learn that a three-headed dog guards something under the school: the Philosopher's Stone, which grants eternal life. They suspect the hostile potions master Severus Snape of trying to steal it, and with Dumbledore away they go through the trapdoor themselves, past a giant chess game in which Ron sacrifices himself.
How Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ends
Harry reaches the final chamber and finds not Snape but Professor Quirrell, with Voldemort's face on the back of his head. The Stone appears in Harry's pocket through the Mirror of Erised, and Quirrell crumbles to dust at Harry's touch, protected by his mother's sacrifice. Dumbledore explains, the Stone is destroyed, and Gryffindor wins the House Cup. Harry goes home for the summer with Voldemort still out there.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 02 · 2002 · Film
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets recap
The house-elf Dobby tries to stop Harry going back to Hogwarts, and Ron and his brothers rescue Harry in a flying car. At school, students and a ghost are found petrified, and a message on the wall announces that the Chamber of Secrets, built by Salazar Slytherin, has been opened and its monster is hunting Muggle-born students. Harry discovers he can speak Parseltongue, the snake language, and the school suspects him. Hermione is petrified. Harry finds an old diary belonging to Tom Riddle that shows him a memory of Hagrid being blamed for the Chamber fifty years ago. Then Ron's sister Ginny is taken into the Chamber, and Harry and Ron go after her, dragging along the fraudulent teacher Gilderoy Lockhart, whose memory charm backfires on himself.
How Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ends
In the Chamber, Tom Riddle reveals he is the young Voldemort, preserved in the diary and draining Ginny's life. Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes brings Harry the Sorting Hat, and he pulls the sword of Gryffindor from it, kills the basilisk, and stabs the diary with a fang, destroying Riddle. Ginny lives. Harry frees Dobby from Lucius Malfoy, who planted the diary. The diary later turns out to be one of Voldemort's Horcruxes.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. After the credits, a sign in Flourish and Blotts advertises Lockhart's new book, "Who Am I?", a joke about his lost memory. It sets up nothing further.
No. 03 · 2004 · Film
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban recap
Sirius Black, a mass murderer said to have betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort, escapes from the wizard prison Azkaban and appears to be hunting Harry. Soul-sucking Dementors guard Hogwarts, and the new Defence teacher Remus Lupin teaches Harry to fight them with the Patronus charm. Harry learns Black was his father's best friend and his godfather. Hagrid's hippogriff Buckbeak is sentenced to death after Draco provokes it. Ron's rat Scabbers vanishes, and a huge black dog drags Ron into the Shrieking Shack.
How Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban ends
In the Shack, Black and Lupin reveal that Scabbers is Peter Pettigrew, the real traitor, who framed Sirius. Lupin turns into a werewolf under the full moon and Pettigrew escapes. Hermione uses her Time-Turner to take Harry back three hours, and they save Buckbeak and then Sirius, who flies off on the hippogriff. Harry casts a full Patronus to drive off the Dementors. Lupin resigns, and Sirius sends Harry a Firebolt broom.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 04 · 2005 · Film
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire recap
At the Quidditch World Cup, Death Eaters riot and Voldemort's Dark Mark appears in the sky. Hogwarts hosts the Triwizard Tournament with two other schools, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang, and the Goblet of Fire chooses Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour and Viktor Krum, then spits out a fourth name: Harry, who is underage and never entered. Ron, jealous, stops speaking to him for a while. The gruff new Defence teacher Mad-Eye Moody steers Harry through the tasks: getting past a dragon, rescuing Ron from the lake, and the Yule Ball in between. In the final task, a hedge maze, Harry and Cedric agree to take the Triwizard Cup together.
How Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ends
The Cup is a Portkey that carries them to a graveyard. Pettigrew kills Cedric and uses Harry's blood to give Voldemort a body again. Harry duels Voldemort, the wands connect, the ghosts of his parents shield him, and he escapes with Cedric's body. Moody turns out to be Barty Crouch Jr. in disguise, who rigged the tournament. Dumbledore tells the school Voldemort is back.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 05 · 2007 · Film
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix recap
The Ministry of Magic refuses to believe Voldemort has returned and smears Harry and Dumbledore. Harry is nearly expelled for using magic against Dementors. Sirius's old house is headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's secret society. The Ministry installs Dolores Umbridge at Hogwarts, who bans practical magic and punishes Harry cruelly, so Harry teaches his friends in secret as Dumbledore's Army. Harry shares visions with Voldemort, saves Ron's father Arthur from a snake attack, and takes lessons from Snape to close his mind. Umbridge drives out Dumbledore and takes over the school. Then Harry has a vision of Sirius being tortured at the Ministry.
How Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix ends
The vision is a trap. In the Department of Mysteries, Harry and his friends fight Death Eaters over a prophecy about him, the Order arrives, and Bellatrix Lestrange kills Sirius. Dumbledore duels Voldemort in the Ministry atrium, and the Minister sees Voldemort with his own eyes. Dumbledore tells Harry the prophecy: one of them must kill the other.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 06 · 2009 · Film
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince recap
Voldemort's followers are openly attacking. Dumbledore brings back the old teacher Horace Slughorn, who once told the young Tom Riddle about Horcruxes, objects holding pieces of a soul. Harry excels at potions thanks to an old textbook annotated by "the Half-Blood Prince". Draco has a secret mission from Voldemort, and Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to help him. Ron and Hermione circle each other and Harry falls for Ginny. Harry gets Slughorn's real memory: Riddle made several Horcruxes, and Dumbledore has already destroyed one, a ring. Dumbledore takes Harry to a sea cave to retrieve another, a locket, and drinks a poison to reach it.
How Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ends
Back at Hogwarts, Draco lets Death Eaters into the school and disarms Dumbledore but cannot kill him; Snape does it, and reveals he is the Half-Blood Prince. The locket is a fake left by someone signing "R.A.B." Harry decides to skip his last year to hunt the remaining Horcruxes with Ron and Hermione.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 07 · 2010 · Film
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 recap
Voldemort takes over the Ministry. The Order moves Harry out of his aunt's house using six decoy Harrys, and Mad-Eye is killed. At Bill and Fleur's wedding the Ministry falls, and Harry, Ron and Hermione flee and go on the run. They learn that the real locket is in Umbridge's possession, steal it from the Ministry, and cannot destroy it. Wearing it poisons their moods, and Ron walks out. Harry and Hermione visit Godric's Hollow and are ambushed by Nagini. Ron returns, saving Harry and destroying the locket with the sword of Gryffindor. Xenophilius Lovegood tells them about the Deathly Hallows: the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak.
How Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 ends
Snatchers capture the trio and take them to Malfoy Manor, where Bellatrix tortures Hermione. Dobby rescues them, and is killed by Bellatrix's knife; Harry buries him. Voldemort breaks into Dumbledore's tomb and takes the Elder Wand, the most powerful wand there is, setting up Part 2.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 08 · 2011 · Film
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 recap
With help from the goblin Griphook, the trio break into Gringotts and steal Helga Hufflepuff's cup from Bellatrix's vault, escaping on a dragon. They return to Hogwarts, where Snape is now headmaster, to find Ravenclaw's diadem, and the school rises against Voldemort. In the battle, Ron and Hermione destroy the cup with a basilisk fang and kiss, the diadem burns, and Fred, Lupin and Tonks are killed. Voldemort kills Snape, believing that will make him master of the Elder Wand. Snape's dying memories show he loved Harry's mother Lily, protected Harry all along, and killed Dumbledore on his orders. They also reveal that Harry himself carries a piece of Voldemort's soul.
How Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 ends
Harry walks into the forest and lets Voldemort kill him, which destroys the soul piece inside him; he returns from a limbo conversation with Dumbledore. Neville kills Nagini, the last Horcrux, and Harry defeats Voldemort, whose curse rebounds because the Elder Wand belongs to Harry. Nineteen years later, Harry and Ginny, and Ron and Hermione, see their children off to Hogwarts. HBO's series will retell the story.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 09 · 2016 · Film · optional
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them recap
In 1926, the British magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York with a suitcase full of magical creatures. Some escape after a mix-up with Jacob Kowalski, a No-Maj (non-magical) baker, and demoted Auror Tina Goldstein arrests Newt. Tina's sister Queenie, a mind reader, falls for Jacob. The American magical government, MACUSA, is hunting the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, and something invisible is destroying parts of the city. MACUSA official Percival Graves pressures Credence Barebone, the abused son of an anti-magic preacher, to find a child who is an Obscurial, carrying a destructive force created by repressed magic. Newt and Tina are sentenced to death and escape.
How Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ends
Credence is the Obscurial and wrecks Manhattan; MACUSA Aurors appear to destroy him. Newt exposes Graves as Grindelwald in disguise and he is arrested. Newt's Thunderbird spreads an obliviating rain over the city, and Jacob's memory is wiped, though he opens a bakery full of creature-shaped pastries and Queenie walks in. A scrap of Credence's Obscurus survives, setting up the sequel.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 10 · 2018 · Film · optional
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald recap
In 1927, Grindelwald escapes custody. Albus Dumbledore, who cannot fight him himself, asks Newt to go to Paris, where Credence, alive, is searching for his real family with the circus performer Nagini, a woman cursed to become a snake. Tina, Jacob and Queenie follow; Jacob's memory has returned, and Queenie has enchanted him so they can marry against American law. Newt's former classmate Leta Lestrange, now engaged to his brother Theseus, is caught up in her family's secrets about a lost brother whom many believe Credence to be. Grindelwald recruits followers and holds a rally in a Paris mausoleum, promising wizards a world where they rule over Muggles.
How Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald ends
Leta reveals she accidentally drowned her baby brother long ago, so Credence is not a Lestrange. Grindelwald's rally ends in battle; Leta dies holding him back, and Queenie and Credence join him. Newt takes from Grindelwald a vial holding the blood pact that stops him and Dumbledore fighting each other. At Nurmengard, Grindelwald tells Credence his name is Aurelius Dumbledore, setting up the next film.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 11 · 2022 · Film · optional
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore recap
In the 1930s, Grindelwald, cleared by the wizarding authorities, runs to lead the International Confederation of Wizards. He kills a newborn qilin, a creature that bows to a pure-hearted leader, and uses its corpse to see the future. Newt saves its twin. Dumbledore assembles a team: Newt, Theseus, Jacob, the American teacher Lally Hicks, Newt's assistant Bunty and Yusuf Kama, using decoy suitcases to defeat Grindelwald's visions. Credence, ill and fading, is used to hunt Dumbledore. Queenie lives unhappily with Grindelwald's followers. The election is held in Bhutan, where Grindelwald's reanimated qilin bows to him and he declares war on Muggles.
How Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore ends
Credence brings out the living qilin, which bows to Dumbledore; he declines, and it bows to Vicencia Santos, who is elected instead. Grindelwald tries to kill Credence, the blood pact breaks as the two old friends duel, and Grindelwald flees. Credence, dying, goes home with his father Aberforth Dumbledore, and Jacob and Queenie marry in New York. No further Fantastic Beasts film has been made.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
Common questions
What is the Harry Potter story so far?
Harry Potter, an orphan who survived Lord Voldemort's killing curse as a baby, spends seven years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and finally destroys Voldemort in the Battle of Hogwarts. Decades earlier, the magizoologist Newt Scamander is drawn into Albus Dumbledore's fight against the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, which the Fantastic Beasts films leave unfinished. HBO's new series, which retells the books from the start, is set to premiere on December 25, 2026.
Where did Harry Potter leave off?
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022) is the latest. Credence brings out the living qilin, which bows to Dumbledore; he declines, and it bows to Vicencia Santos, who is elected instead. Grindelwald tries to kill Credence, the blood pact breaks as the two old friends duel, and Grindelwald flees. Credence, dying, goes home with his father Aberforth Dumbledore, and Jacob and Queenie marry in New York. No further Fantastic Beasts film has been made.
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