Harry Potter movies in order: chronological and release order (2026 guide)

The Wizarding World is one of the rare franchises where, for the main story, release order and chronological order are almost the same thing — until the Fantastic Beasts prequels arrived and quietly added decades of history in front of everything you knew. If you’re planning a full re-watch, or introducing someone to Hogwarts for the first time, the order you pick genuinely changes the experience.

This guide lays out every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film in both orders, explains exactly why they split apart, and gives you a clear recommendation depending on who’s watching.

The two ways to order the Wizarding World

The eight Harry Potter films were released in story order, one book at a time, from 2001 to 2011. Watching them in release order also walks you straight through Harry’s seven years at Hogwarts, from the moment he learns he’s a wizard to the Battle of Hogwarts. For the core saga, then, there’s no conflict at all — release order is chronological order.

The Fantastic Beasts trilogy is what complicates things. Released from 2016 onward, those films are set in the 1920s and 1930s — roughly sixty years before Harry is even born. The moment you include them, release order and chronological order pull apart, and you have to decide whether to open with Newt Scamander in 1926 or with a young Harry under the stairs at Privet Drive.

Harry Potter in order (release = chronological)

These eight films are the heart of the Wizarding World, and they play in the same order whether you sort by release date or by story:

• ✦Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Sorcerer’s Stone in the US) — 2001
• ✦Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets — 2002
• ✦Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban — 2004
• ✦Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — 2005
• ✦Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix — 2007
• ✦Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince — 2009
• ✦Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 — 2010
• ✦Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 — 2011

Where Fantastic Beasts fits

The Fantastic Beasts films follow Newt Scamander, a magizoologist, and a young Albus Dumbledore in the decades before Harry’s story. They chart the rise of the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald and quietly seed names, places and family histories you’ll later recognise from the Potter era. Chronologically they come first — even though they were made last.

There are three of them, and they’re tightly dated within the films themselves, which makes their placement easy:

• ✦Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — set in 1926, in New York
• ✦Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald — set in 1927
• ✦Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore — set in 1932

The full chronological watch order

To watch the entire Wizarding World from the earliest events forward, run the Fantastic Beasts trilogy first, then move into Harry’s story:

• ✦Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• ✦Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• ✦Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
• ✦…then the eight Harry Potter films, Philosopher’s Stone through Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

Which order should you watch first?

For most people, especially first-timers, we recommend watching Harry Potter 1–8 first and saving Fantastic Beasts for afterwards. The Potter films are the emotional core of the world; they need no setup, they grow in confidence and darkness as they go, and they give you all the context that makes the prequels resonate. Come to Fantastic Beasts already knowing what Hogwarts, Dumbledore and Grindelwald mean, and the prequels feel like rich backstory rather than a slow introduction.

If you already know the Potter films by heart and want the full historical sweep, go chronological. Starting in 1926 and watching the wizarding world march toward the events Harry inherits is a genuinely different, rewarding experience — you catch the foreshadowing, the recurring bloodlines, and the long shadow Grindelwald casts over everything that follows.

• ✦First time in the Wizarding World? Harry Potter 1–8 first, then Fantastic Beasts.
• ✦Rewatching the whole world? Go chronological: Fantastic Beasts, then Harry Potter.
• ✦Watching with younger viewers? Release order doubles as a gentle ramp — the films darken as Harry ages.

A note on runtime and pacing

The full Wizarding World is a serious commitment — eleven films, most of them well over two hours, adding up to more than a full day of viewing. That’s part of why keeping your place matters so much: it’s a saga you watch across weeks, not a single weekend. Spreading it out also suits the material, since each Potter film maps to a school year and each Fantastic Beasts film to a distinct chapter of Grindelwald’s rise.

However you pace it, a two-minute recap before your next session beats re-watching the previous film to remember where you left off — the plots get dense, the cast enormous, and the connective tissue between films (especially across the Beasts trilogy) is easy to forget.

The one ordering mistake to avoid

There is exactly one approach we would steer you away from: scattering the Fantastic Beasts films in between the Harry Potter films. Because both series share a world — and a handful of names — it can be tempting to interleave them, but they belong to completely different eras separated by roughly sixty years, and splicing them together robs each of its momentum. The Beasts films are a continuous 1920s–30s story; the Potter films are a continuous 1990s story. Keep each run intact.

In practice that means only two sensible orders exist: all eight Potter films and then the three Beasts films (the recommended, release-based order), or the three Beasts films and then all eight Potter films (strict chronological). Anything in between just muddies two otherwise clean arcs.

The complete Wizarding World in chronological order — Fantastic Beasts through the Deathly Hallows, with your progress tracked film by film — is live and free on MultiverseOrder. Pick your order, check off each film as you go, and never lose your place in the magic again.