Harry Potter

Each season will be based on one book in the beloved series by controversial author J.K. Rowling, and the cast will be different from the films. Some fans are unhappy about Rowling's involvement.

The Scottish actor played gentle half-giant Hagrid, a mentor to the boy wizard, in all eight Harry Potter films, released between 2001 and 2011. Coltrane died Friday at a hospital in Scotland.

Each October, Circle C resident Joel Pace creates a Harry Potter-themed scene in his front yard and invites the public to come see it — and leave a donation for one of the charities he supports.

"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" premiered on Nov. 16, 2001. To celebrate, we're dusting off our Pensieve and revisiting NPR's coverage from 20 years ago.

The second installment of J.K. Rowling's follow-up Potterfranchise is as overstuffed as the first, but it's less muddled. It dutifully advances the story, but fails to deliver thrilling set-pieces.

It's hard to remember a world before Harry Potter. But it's been 20 years since readers in the U.S. were first introduced to the boy wizard, whose story has captivated audiences since.

Quidditch leapt from the screen to real-life muggle fields in 2005. Now, it's grown big enough to have a major league, and the intensity and athleticism involved is anything but fictional.

Rickman appeared in many blockbuster films during his prolific career, from 1988's Die Hard with Bruce Willis to 2003's Love Actually and the Harry Potter films.