Talking about Harry Potter is almost like talking about the Simpsons, that is, it’s such a popular phenomenon that, whether we like it or not, whether we know it in depth or not, we can all identify it. Harry Potter has left a deep mark on his legions of fans and followers around the world.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Relics were published a long time ago, however, far from being forgotten or remembering wistfully, the young wizard proves that he is still very much present in our lives and maintains a highly loyal and productive fan club.
- How will this evolve in the future?In this article.
- We will provide an answer.
- As far as possible.
- To these questions.
Generally speaking, we can define a fan or follower as a person who admires or idolizes another, can he be an athlete, a singer, an actor?In general, he seems like a famous character, known in the media. But you can also be a fan of a genre, a series, a movie or, as in the case of Harry Potter, a saga.
The phenomenon of followers is also particularly common among adolescents, as it is a period in which identity is formed. Fans tend to follow and even mimic the object of their admiration; one way or another, an identification process occurs.
Fans engage with their idol, gather in communities, share communication codes, etc. They can produce stories or audiovisual material related to their object of admiration.
The Internet has fostered the creation of spaces and communication between fans and, as a result, we have found real legions of followers who produce, share, debate and research.
All of this is perfectly known to advertising agencies. In the end, fans are nothing but consumers and, no doubt, when this phenomenon reaches levels as high as in the case of Harry Potter, the deal will be a success.
In the previous paragraph we talked about an identification process between fans and the phenomenon they idolize, we also comment that this process usually culminates in adolescence, so if we apply this idea to the Harry Potter fandom, we will find a very curious fact.
Let us think for a moment of each of the books that make up the saga; What do we perceive?Each book corresponds to the specific school year Harry was in and therefore at a certain age.
When Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was launched in the UK in 1997, the marketing strategy was aimed exclusively at children, those who were children in the late 1990s.
The young wizard quickly became famous and the books began to be translated and sold around the world. JK Rowling gave children the pleasure of reading, turning an entire generation into readers.
These young readers looked forward to the arrival of the next book in the series. What’s interesting is that books become more complex and grow as they go along. Harry, like the fans, continued to grow.
The books were published every two years, so something extraordinary happened: these young readers came to adolescence as part of something, forming a strong community with a reference with which to identify.
Film adaptations, on the other hand, have helped consolidate this fan club while opening up to a wider audience: young people who haven’t read the books.
Harry Potter fans had a reference with whom they shared their age and concerns, although the universe in which they lived was different, somehow the characters in Rowling’s work seem drawn from our reality.
Rowling introduced us to women with which girls could identify, and we were even able to make a feminist reading of these characters.
Harry’s case is perhaps the furthest from the hero archetype; he is quite an imperfect hero. In addition, the saga has shown us a new masculinity, presenting fears to men, who cry and are not ashamed of it.
Harry Potter fans have been especially active and productive, countless merchandising products and sites like Pottermore, which attract all followers, have contributed to all this success, in fact, the author he or she contributes by fueling the doubts of her followers through interviews and her Twitter. Account.
Obviously, such a large community has several shared codes. They are identified as “Potterheads”, use terms such as “Moldus” and are identified by symbols or emblems, such as death relics or black marks.
The division of the Potterheads between the different houses of Hogwarts is quite special, sites such as the aforementioned Pottermore encouraged fans to have an ”official source” to consult which house they belonged to, thus creating new communities within the same fandom.
One way or another, we can understand this fact as if they were the signs of the zodiac. Membership in a particular house has to do with the personality traits of its inhabitants; that is, belonging to Gryffindor will make us brave; Whoever belongs to Serpentard will stand out for his ambition, that is, the sense of belonging is strengthened and feeds the phenomenon of identification.
Potterheads’ productivity, on the other hand, seems to have no limits. In addition to fanfics, a phenomenon common to all fandoms, we find an extraordinarily creative community.
A community that, far from being relegated to the discussion of theories about the plot, has directed its own film: Voldemort: The Origin of the Heir, an unofficial spin-off that explores the life of the saga’s antagonist and was funded by the fans themselves.
If we have previously commented that this fandom can be seen from a generational perspective, perhaps we should start thinking about the future. Can attracting new subscribers be a problem?
Like the fans who grew up together as witches, any young man can have all the books, movies and information at his disposal, but in a way, the magic is broken, one of the keys that we mentioned earlier was generational identification, which, with the expectation of the next book, has fueled the phenomenon.
It may be too early to consider its possible evolution, but we can see how some steps have already been taken to find new niches or future fans, an example of this can be found in creating the saga of fantastic animals and where to find them. .
Why create a new saga? Because, in addition to the established fandom that is now adult, it is possible to open the doors to a new audience, fantastic beasts and where to find them was well accepted by younger generations who have not even read the Harry Potter books.
Over time, Harry Potter-inspired theme parks have opened and real-life settings like King’s Cross have been used to provide fans with entertainment beyond movies and books, an experience that allows them to discover the world dreamed by JK Rowling.
We don’t know what the future will be like, but everything seems to point out that fandom is more alive than ever. In the meantime, we will continue to dream and wait for our letter to enter Hogwarts.