I was able to see the last Harry Potter film while visiting my in-laws last week. This truly is the end of an era. The last film of what has become a heptalogy, or is it now an octalogy as the last book was made into two films? I read the first book when I was fifteen, and have continued to read every book and also see every film. I have not waited for neither films nor books, but, because of a younger brother-in-law, I have been to the premieres of a few of them. I have always been able to plough through the book before seeing the film.
To me this isn’t just the end of the Harry Potter era, but the end of the fantasy era. I waited in line for the Lord of the Rings films and made sure I had tickets to the premieres of every one of them. I also stood in line after midnight to get the last Harry Potter book a few years ago. I never dressed up or went to any extremes (except losing sleep on a school-night) to attend these events, but it didn’t cost me anything to attend either. Being of my generation I saw it as my duty, as long as I was already fascinated by and interested in LOTR and Harry Potter, to take part in what was going on at the time. I had, and still have, an image in my head of me some years from now, sitting with my son on my lap introducing him to these books. Not only will I introduce him to the wonderful worlds of Tolkien and Rowling (I do favour one over the other), but I can also tell him about the worldwide mania relating to the premieres of the films and the publishing of the books, as a first-hand witness to it all.
