Where is the streaming home of the Harry Potter franchise, and would you be able to stream the movies with your Netflix subscription?
If you lived through the period when Harry Potter was actually coming out, you probably have the movies in DVD or Blu-ray format. That was almost a decade ago, and long gone are the days when we’d patiently wait for our favorite movie to be printed on disk and shelved in the nearest Best Buy.
Nowadays, finding your favorite movie franchise to rewatch can be a nightmare. In the United States alone, there are well over a dozen major streaming platforms and a few of them belong to huge conglomerates with licensing rights to some of the greatest franchises out there. Who knows which one of them has bought the license to that one movie series you’re looking for? Unless you’re subscribed to all of them, which is not usually the case.
You’ll know, of course, that Harry Potter belongs to Warner Bros. and as such can be found on Max (also known as HBO Max) in its entirety. Technically, the most convenient way to watch Harry Potter right now is to simply sign in to your Max account and buy a subscription, which allows you to watch all eight movies and the Fantastic Beasts spinoffs without any other hurdles. But let’s say you don’t have a Max subscription at the moment, and want to review the story of the Boy Who Lived on another streaming platform — Netflix, to be more precise. Is that even possible?
Can you catch Harry Potter on Netflix?
Besides online stores and platforms that rent or sell the movies separately (like Prime Video), Harry Potter is currently streaming on two main platforms in the United States, Max and Peacock. That means Netflix customers won’t be able to watch the Daniel Radcliffe-led adaptation with their main account, but it’s not as simple as that.
In fact, that statement may lead some of you to think, “I could’ve sworn my friend in the U.K. said he was watching Harry Potter on his Netflix account!” And well, you’d be right. The Wizarding World franchise made its way to Netflix early last year, but only in select countries. So, if you’re a resident of a country like the U.S., and many others besides, you won’t be able to find Harry Potter in your Netflix library.
People in the U.K., Ireland, Portugal, and Japan can access the movies with their Netflix account. That has led some outlets on the internet to suggest buying specific VPNs that change or mask your IP, but by that point, I think it’d just be much more convenient to get a Max account, wouldn’t you say?
