The ‘Next Harry Potter’
by Faith and Robert McKay
“Hollywood Studios Clamor for the next Harry Potter" or “Will this book be the ‘next Harry Potter’?”It seems like every week there is another ‘next Harry Potter’ all of the newspapers and television channels are talking about. Frankly, I’m sick of seeing these headlines.
I love Harry Potter and its fandom is a fairly unique branch for a number of reasons. It was easy to see there wasn’t a “type” of person who was into Harry Potter, there was no demographic-we were all part of the demographic. Young, old, British, American, it didn’t seem to determine who would be a Harry Potter fan. The Harry Potter series also helped renew interest in the fantasy genre, and put young adult books back on the market. However, there was fantasy fiction before Harry Potter, and there will be fantasy fiction afterwards as well.
In June 2007 the SFGate (The San Fransisco Chronicle) published a list of titles being called The ‘next Harry Potter’. Despite the fact that a number of these stories were published BEFORE Harry Potter journalists seem very anxious to be able to say “We called it first!”.
Some of my own list of stories I’d love to stop seeing under the headlines ‘The Next Harry Potter!’ include:
The Golden Compass– Beyond both being fantasy, and the children with British accents, the only thing these two stories have in common are the droves of angry Christians.
Lord of The Rings – Huh? How did this ever happen? Trust me, it’s out there, and not in the order of things, it should be “Harry Potter, next Lord of the Rings?”.
The Passage – This is a story about vampires being created in medical experiments. Film companies battled it out and spent $1.75 million on film rights on a book they had only half read. If that’s not enough to make the screen writers and director crumble under the pressure, I don’t know what is.
Narnia – Ignoring the fact that Narnia was around first by a long shot, it’ll never enjoy the same sort of widespread success as Harry Potter because it doesn’t stir up nearly enough controversy. Where are the picketers, the angry parents, and the people burning books?
Eragon – Great books, terrible film, do not a Harry Potter franchise make.
Twilight – This is a love story with vampires. Enough said.
And every other new (or, apparently old) fantasy series that gets released.
In a recent interview on MTV with Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twilight series, she was interviewed about Twilight being the ‘next Harry Potter’, and handled the interview with grace and class. She put it best when she said, “It’s terribly flattering to be compared to her, but there’s never going to be another J.K. Rowling; that’s a phenomenon that’s not gonna happen again.”
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