Harry Potter Timeline: Every Film in Story Order

The Harry Potter timeline of events places the three Fantastic Beasts spin-offs first, then the eight Harry Potter films in release order, with a closing epilogue nineteen years later. The fixed years on screen are 1926 and 1927 for the first two spin-offs, 1995 for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and 1997 for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. The other films are anchored by school years and by each film's setup rather than by a stated date. For viewing advice rather than story order, see Harry Potter movies in order.

The timeline opens in 1926, when British magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in New York in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), directed by David Yates. A swapped suitcase lets creatures loose across the city, and the hunt exposes an Obscurus, the dangerous force that grows in a magical child who hides their powers. The senior security official Percival Graves turns out to be the dark wizard Grindelwald in disguise. His arrest ends the film, and a Thunderbird's rain wipes the city's memory of the chaos. Newt Scamander is the thread that links the whole trilogy.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), also directed by David Yates, takes place in 1927 and is the second chapter in story order. Gellert Grindelwald escapes custody during a transfer from America to Europe, and the story moves to London and Paris as Newt and Dumbledore both look for Credence Barebone. Grindelwald holds a rally, shows a vision of a future war and gathers followers. Newt then hands Dumbledore the vial that holds the blood pact keeping the two wizards from fighting each other, and the film ends at Nurmengard, where Grindelwald gives Credence a wand and a phoenix and hints that his real name is Aurelius Dumbledore.

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022), directed by David Yates, is the last chapter before the Hogwarts story. Dumbledore assembles a small team led by Newt while the blood pact stops him from facing Grindelwald directly. A newborn qilin decides who leads the international wizarding body, and Grindelwald tries to rig the result in Berlin. The clash of spells at the end breaks the blood pact, so the two men are free to fight.

The Hogwarts story begins on Harry's eleventh birthday, when Hagrid tells him he is a wizard in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), directed by Chris Columbus. Harry is sorted into Gryffindor, befriends Ron and Hermione, and stops Professor Quirrell from taking the Stone. Quirrell carries Voldemort's weakened spirit on the back of his head. That spirit escapes at the end, and it is the threat that runs through every later film.

The second year at Hogwarts is the first time the timeline shows Voldemort's past reaching back into the school, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), directed by Chris Columbus. Tom Riddle's enchanted diary is the link, because it lets a boy from fifty years earlier act through Ginny Weasley while students are turned to stone. Harry follows the trail to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, uses the Sword of Gryffindor against the basilisk below and ends the diary with one of its fangs. The aftermath fixes a loose end: Lucius Malfoy is shown to have planted the diary, and Dobby is freed.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), directed by Alfonso Cuarón, follows Harry's third year while Sirius Black is loose and Dementors guard the school. The Time-Turner is the unusual device here, because Harry and Hermione use it to rewind one night and rescue Buckbeak and Black. Sirius Black escapes on the hippogriff, Lupin resigns after his secret as a werewolf is exposed and Peter Pettigrew remains at large.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), directed by Mike Newell, is the turning point of the timeline. Harry is forced into the Triwizard Tournament, and the final task carries him and Cedric Diggory to a graveyard by Portkey. Wormtail kills Cedric and uses Harry's blood to bring Lord Voldemort back to a body. The Ministry of Magic refuses to accept that he has returned, and that denial drives the next film.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), directed by David Yates, opens in the summer of 1995 with a Dementor attack on Harry and his cousin Dudley. Dolores Umbridge takes over Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Harry, Ron and Hermione form Dumbledore's Army in response. A trip to the Ministry ends with the death of Sirius, a duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore, and the Minister's admission that Voldemort is back.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), directed by David Yates, covers Harry's sixth year, with Death Eaters now attacking London. Harry coaxes a memory from Slughorn that reveals Voldemort split his soul into Horcruxes. Dumbledore and Harry retrieve a locket from a sea cave, but it is a fake left by someone with the initials R.A.B. Snape kills Dumbledore, and Harry decides to hunt the remaining Horcruxes instead of returning to school.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010), directed by David Yates, is set in 1997, when the Death Eaters hold great power and the Ministry falls. Harry, Ron and Hermione go on the run, destroy the locket with the Sword of Gryffindor and learn about the Deathly Hallows from Xenophilius Lovegood. The film ends with Dobby buried at Shell Cottage and Voldemort taking the Elder Wand from Dumbledore's tomb.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011), directed by David Yates, closes the story with the Gringotts break-in and the battle at Hogwarts. Snape's memories show that he loved Lily Potter and secretly served Dumbledore, and they tell Harry he must die for Voldemort to fall. Voldemort dies when his own curse rebounds. Nineteen years later, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione and Draco watch their children board the Hogwarts Express at King's Cross.

The Harry Potter timeline by age is clearest at three points: Harry is eleven in the first film, in his sixth year at Hogwarts in the sixth film, and a parent in the epilogue. The films give school years more reliably than birthdays, and the summers between films are not dated. The one stated gap is the nineteen years in the epilogue. The Fantastic Beasts films cover an earlier generation, so Newt appears in 1926 and Dumbledore from 1927, both before Harry's story begins.

The timeline is easiest to hold in your head as three blocks: the 1920s spin-offs, the school years that run through 1995 and 1997, and the epilogue. In my opinion, the spin-offs work best as a prequel to Dumbledore and Grindelwald rather than to Harry, because the blood pact in The Crimes of Grindelwald is the only plot device that crosses the whole gap and is not resolved until The Secrets of Dumbledore. Is it worth watching in story order? Perhaps not for a first viewing, since Harry's films build their mystery in release order, but it makes a fine second pass.

The epilogue is the cleanest piece of dating in the series, and the films never explain why it lands nineteen years on. It could be argued that the gap is a practical choice, since it lets the original leads appear as parents.

The HBO series does not extend any of this. It retells the story from the first book with a new cast, and its first season, titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, is reported for December 25, 2026. See the HBO series and the new Harry Potter movie page for status.