The Best 13 Movies Like Harry Potter For This Weekend

Most Potter fans would agree that Harry Potter is the best magical book and movie ever, whether they like the movies or the books. The world is so magical and full of tiny details that it looks so real on screen that fans are still waiting for their letters to Hogwarts.

It’s hard—and maybe even unfair—to compare any story to “The Boy Who Lived,” but if you’ve already watched all the movies and learned all the spells, there are still a lot of other stories that can help you escape. Here are 13 movies like Harry Potter that you can watch right now on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and other services. Many of them were also based on books. Each one will have just the right amount of magic, myth, and main characters who don’t give up.

The Top 13 Movies Like Harry Potter in 2024:

Fantastic Beasts

Rowling herself wrote the Fantastic Beasts movies, which are a spinoff of the Harry Potter series and follow the adventures of Newt Scamander, a strange “magizoologist.” Fans get to see not only Scamander’s adventures, but also the little-known story of how Albus Dumbledore came to be. That is, Harry’s teacher and one of the best wizards in the history of the wizarding world. The third movie will come out in 2021.

The Chronicles of Narnia Trilogy

Based on the fantasy books by C.S. Lewis published in the 1950s, The Chronicles of Narnia is about four British kids who find an ordinary closet that leads them to the magical world of Narnia, where there are bad witches, good fauns, a noble talking lion, and a handsome prince.

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

The three rich Baudelaire brothers are orphaned, just like Harry Potter. They are shuffled from one strange guardian to the next while they try to stay away from Count Olaf (Jim Carrey), a distant cousin who wants their huge fortune. The Netflix show is based on a set of 13 books, and Neil Patrick Harris plays the lead role.

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, which came out in 2010, is still a great family movie with a great ensemble cast, but it hasn’t been one of Disney’s most acclaimed family adventures in recent years. Balthazar Blake (Nicolas Cage), a wizard who is hundreds of years old and was Merlin’s (James A. Stephens) assistant, and David Stutler (Jay Baruchel), a college student who turns out to be Merlin’s grandson and Balthazar’s last chance to stop an evil that is growing, are at the center of the story.

The acting and bubbliness of Cage are at their peak, and his chemistry with Baruchel is surprisingly strong, especially considering that Alfred Molina, Monica Bellucci, Teresa Palmer, and Alice Krige are also in the group. Even though it didn’t bring anything new to the fantasy genre and has been criticized for using tired plot devices, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice is a fun fantasy journey that all Potter fans will enjoy.

Seventh Son

Seventh Son wasn’t the grand journey that was planned, even though it had an all-star cast, a huge budget, a lot of magical elements, and the ambitious hiring of the famous Russian director Sergei Bodrov. That said, this doesn’t always mean it was bad. It is loosely based on Joseph Delaney’s novel The Spook’s Apprentice and is set in Europe in the 1600s. The strong but young Thomas Ward (Ben Barnes) works with the witch hunter Master Gregory (Jeff Bridges) to defeat an evil that can take over the world.

The movie Seventh Son had a strong group that included Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander, Olivia Williams, Djimon Hounsou, and Kit Harrington. However, it got bad reviews and had a messy release schedule. Even though it’s not the best movie ever, it still has enough magical action thrills to satisfy people who want to escape into a fun dream world.

The Golden Compass

No matter how well it did at the box office, The Golden Compass never really caught on enough to become a modern fantasy classic. However, fans of the genre can still find it and enjoy it. Based on Philip Pullman’s book Northern Lights, it takes place in a different world where people’s souls live with them as animal-like beings called daemons. As the story goes on, Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), a young girl, tries to save her friend who has been taken from a bad guy who is testing on kids.

Many people said that The Golden Compass didn’t have enough of the novel’s emotional bite, especially when it came to its sharp comments on religion. However, it still does a great job of telling a magical and exciting story with an amazing ensemble cast. Unfortunately, The Golden Compass wasn’t able to grow into the big fantasy series that it was meant to be, but fantasy fans can still enjoy it for fun.

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Twilight Series

Fans of the Harry Potter series know that Robert Pattinson took off his Hufflepuff clothes to play the famous vampire Edward Cullen in the Twilight series. Since the first book came out in 2005, Twilight fans have been enthralled by Edward and Bella’s forbidden love.

Vampire Academy

Teenager who is half-human and half-vampire Liliana Dragomir, princess of the Moroi vampires and Rose Hathaway’s best friend, goes to St. Vladamir’s Academy with her. Rose trains to be her guardian, but she has to give up something along the way.

Stardust

Tristan is a young man who goes into the land of the fairies to get a fallen star for his love, but he ends up guarding a magical young woman from a king and an evil watch.

Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

Based on Rick Riordan’s famous first book, The Lightning Thief, the first Percy Jackson movie, directed by Chris Columbus (who also made the first two Harry Potter movies), has become something of a cult classic. The story is about Percy Jackson, played by Logan Lerman, a dyslexic teen who finds out he is a god when he is accused of taking Zeus’s (Sean Bean) master lightning bolt and has to return it to keep the gods’ tense relationship from turning into full-on war.

Like the Harry Potter movies, it’s about a young boy who goes on an amazing magical journey with two very loyal friends. The adventure mixes the real world with high fantasy. The movie got some bad reviews for being too different from the book, but it did have a follow-up in 2013 called Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Also, Riordan’s book series has recently been turned into a TV show that was just renewed for a second season.

Doctor Strange

The Marvel Cinematic Universe may be the only movie series of the 21st century that has had a bigger effect on culture and society than the Harry Potter movies. As the main sorcerer in the MCU, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange movies are the most magical in the superhero genre. The 2016 origin movie was more like Harry Potter in terms of fantasy spectacle and blockbuster fun, while Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is much darker.

After a terrible accident that leaves his hands permanently damaged, Doctor Strange follows the title character, a neurosurgeon, as he tries to find a fix for his illness. This journey takes him to Kamar-Taj and the help of The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton). Engaging with its magical parts was what made it unique, which is why Doctor Strange is a must-see for movie fans who want more magic in their movies.

Upside-Down Magic

Upside-Down Magic, which was made by Disney Channel and came out in 2020, is a great movie for younger Harry Potter fans. The story is about two young best friends who find out they are magical. Nory (Izabela Rose), can change into animals, and Reina (Siena Agudong), can control fire. Reina is very good at using her powers, but Nory has trouble with them. To protect her from the Shadow Magic, an evil force that takes over people with flawed abilities, she is put in the Upside-Down Magic program.

It had a main idea about accepting and beating one’s unique traits, and it also showed how important friendship is. It took a lot of ideas from Harry Potter and made great use of the magical setting of Sage Academy as a school for magical kids that is cursed by a dark and unknown evil. There was a scene after the credits that hinted at more to come, so Upside-Down Magic could become the start of a bigger series. However, there has been no word on a possible sequel.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

These beloved Roald Dahl stories were brought to the big screen a second time by a movie directed by Tim Burton. There is a movie with Johnny Depp as Charlie, a poor British boy who finds a golden ticket in one of Willy Wonka’s candy bars and is one of only five kids picked to go on a magical trip to see the chocolate plant.

Conclusion:

If you liked Harry Potter, you’ll enjoy these movies just as much. They have the same magic, excitement, and sense of wonder. There are epic fiction worlds like The Chronicles of Narnia and magical stories like Percy Jackson in each of these movies. Each one has its own mix of exciting tasks, complicated characters, and beautiful settings. These movies will take you to new worlds, whether you want to hear about friendship, epic fights, or strange animals. They will keep the magic alive long after your trip through Hogwarts is over. Now get some popcorn and let the journey begin!

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