Should You Watch Fantastic Beasts Before the Harry Potter Films? (Best Watch Order)
We all know there’s more than enough magic in the main timeline of the Harry Potter movies, but if you want to take your wizarding education to the next level, you might be keen to dive into the Fantastic Beasts series, too.
Harry Potter fans have plenty of time to take that trip, too. While we wait for the new TV show version of the beloved fantasy movies to hit the small screen via HBO, revisiting Hogwarts is a great idea. But what about the world outside of the original stories and characters?
Five years after the core line of movies ended, director David Yates produced (literal) magic again with the first of his Fantastic Beasts spinoff movies, and, thankfully, you won’t need the Marauder’s Map to plan out your journey through the 11 films in the franchise.
How to Watch Harry Potter In Chronological Order
If you’re looking to watch the Harry Potter saga in chronological order, there’s a very simple route to take. Start with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is set in 1926, then move on to The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore, which are direct sequels. After this trilogy, you can begin the original film series, starting with Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, which is set across the 1991/92 school year. By the time you get to the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, you’ll be in 1997/98 – 60 years after The Secrets of Dumbledore.
Here are all the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies in chronological order, and the years they take place in:
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (1926)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (1927)
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (1932)
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1991/2)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1992/3)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1993/4)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (1994/5)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (1995/6)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (1996/7)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (1997/8)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (1998)
However, I would recommend going the opposite, and sticking to release order. For a start, there’s very little in the way of meaningful connections between the two timelines. Even the insight into Albus Dumbledore’s earlier life would carry far less weight if you saw that before getting to know the man he becomes in the Potter movies.
More importantly, though, it’s better to immerse yourself in the heart of the Wizarding World with the original movies before you broaden your horizons. Only when you’ve embraced the charm and wonder of those eight films can you really appreciate the external world-building of the Fantastic Beasts stories.
Here are all the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts movies in release order:
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (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)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022)
Are the Fantastic Beasts Movies Worth Watching?
I’m not going to tell you that any of the Fantastic Beasts movies are anywhere near as good as the Harry Potter films. But if you’re a fan of the franchise or just a fantasy movie aficionado, the spinoffs are absolutely serviceable.
The first movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is arguably the best of the three. It does a great job of laying the foundations for the time period, the characters, and the overarching story. In particular, it works well because there’s a really fun and light feel to it all, especially with the focus on the weird and wonderful creatures Eddie Redmayne’s protagonist, Newt Scamander, encounters.
The Crimes of Grindelwald takes a decidedly darker turn. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re more attuned to the likes of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. However, the narrative does fall foul of some slightly convoluted pivots. The decision to replace Colin Farrell with Johnny Depp made the character of Grindelwald far less interesting, and he takes the limelight away from Newt so much that the main hero becomes underdeveloped.
By the time we get to The Secrets of Dumbledore, it feels like we lose sight of the big picture. The plot gets messy, to say the least, but there are some great moments, still. Jude Law is fantastic as a younger Dumbledore; anytime he’s on screen is a real treat. The same can be said for Mads Mikkelsen, who takes over as Grindelwald and brings genuine menace to the character. The CGI and broader visuals are superb, too. However, there is one glaring issue…
The One Big Problem with the Fantastic Beasts Movies
Given the immense popularity of Harry Potter, fleshing out the Wizarding World was a no-brainer, and there were grand plans to make at least four Fantastic Beasts movies. Naturally, then, the third movie ends on a real cliffhanger to set up the next instalment.
The problem is, no one banked on The Secrets of Dumbledore struggling at the box office. The movie made roughly $407m against a budget of $200m, making it the worst performer of the whole franchise. Critical reception around the film wasn’t very positive either, and it’s currently unclear if we will ever get the fourth film now.
So, as the big finale of the Fantastic Beasts story may never be shown on the big screen, I can’t promise you’ll be completely satisfied after watching the three movies we did get. However, there’s more than enough to appreciate about them if you need a little more magic for your next movie marathon.
