'Harry Potter' Turns 25: Anniversary Premiere on the Eve of the Franchise Reboot

An Anniversary at Leicester Square

On 4 November 2001, thousands of fans gathered on London's Leicester Square — many wearing wizard hats and robes — for the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (released in the US and India as 'Sorcerer's Stone'). This is how the BBC described the event, as cited by Deutsche Welle. Twelve-year-old Daniel Radcliffe, according to the agency's report, admitted: 'It's so cool. I've never had my name shouted out so many times in an hour before.' The anniversary coincided with a new chapter in the franchise's life: on 4 November, the largest Harry Potter store to date opens in London — two storeys, covering more than 1,950 square metres, according to Warner Bros.

From 500 Copies to Record Sales

The first book saw a meteoric rise for the series: Bloomsbury published it in June 1997 with a print run of just 500 hardback copies and around 5,000 paperbacks. Its popularity initially grew by word of mouth among schoolchildren, and it attracted media attention thanks to the Nestle Smarties Book Prize, which it won that same year. Today, it is estimated that more than 120 million copies have been sold — making it the best-selling book in the series and one of the best-selling novels in history. The first print run has become a collector's rarity: in mid-October, one hardback copy sold at auction at the American house Heritage Auctions for 400,000 dollars.

The HBO Series and the Controversy Around Rowling

Despite the controversies surrounding J. K. Rowling, Warner Bros. is rebooting the story as a series for HBO: the premiere of the eight-episode first season, an adaptation of the first book, is scheduled for 25 December. Rowling is an executive producer of the project, although HBO states that her views on gender identity will not be reflected in the plot. The new trio will be played by Dominic McLaughlin (Harry), Arabella Stanton (Hermione) and Alastair Stout (Ron). Positions within the project have been divided: Paapa Essiedu, cast as Snape, signed an open letter in support of transgender people, and Rowling stated that she has neither the power nor the desire to remove him from the series; John Lithgow (Dumbledore) and Nick Frost (Hagrid) have also spoken out against her views. Off set, Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint publicly opposed Rowling's position, while Ralph Fiennes and Helena Bonham Carter defended her right to express her opinion. In an essay on her website dated 21 October 2026, Rowling once again set out her disagreement with what she calls 'the current dominant direction of trans activism.'