For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Harry Potter JK Rowling just teased a new sequel.
The author posted a cryptic tweet that has fans thinking a new story involving the boy wizard is on the way.
As well as an image of Voldemort’s dark mark, Rowling wrote: “Sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.”
She included the hashtags “Harry Potter” and “Cursed Child”, which has led people to believe a new version of her two-part novel and stage play is on the way.
Since the final Harry Potter book was published in 2007, there’s been no shortage of material for fans to get stuck into.
Show all 49 1 /49The 65 best movie insults of all time The 65 best movie insults of all time Avengers Assemble (2012) "This is my bargain, you mewling quim."
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) "Hey, where'd you get those clothes, the toilet store?"
DreamWorks Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Bad Moms (2016) "Well, you look like a bag of d***s"
REX
The 65 best movie insults of all time Blade: Trinity (2004) "You c*ck-juggling thunderc***!"
New Line Cinema
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Breakfast Club (1985) "Does Barry Manilow know that you raid his wardrobe?"
Universal Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) "If staying here means working within 10 yards of you, frankly, I'd rather have a job wiping Saddam Hussein's arse."
Universal Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Bull Durham (1988) "From what I hear, you couldn't hit water if you fell out of a f***ing boat."
Orion Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Campaign (2012) "You know what the difference between your momma and a washing machine is? When I dump a load in a machine, the machine doesn't follow me around for three weeks."
Warner Bros Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Casino (1995) "You horse manure smelling motherf***er, you."
Universal Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Closer (2004) "Go f*** yourself, you WRITER!"
Columbia Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Con Air (1997) "You're somewhere between a cockroach and that white stuff that accumulates at the corner of your mouth when you're really thirsty."
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Death of Stalin (2017) "You smell like rendered horse, you burning a**hole."
eOne Films
The 65 best movie insults of all time Donnie Darko (2001) "You can go suck a f***."
Pandora Cinema
The 65 best movie insults of all time Duck Soup (1933) "He may look like an idiot and talk like an idiot but don't let that fool you – he really is an idiot."
Paramount Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Erin Brockovich (2000) "That's all you got, lady - two wrong feet and f***ing ugly shoes."
Columbia Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Favourite (2018) "You look like a badger."
Fox Searchlight Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time A Fish Called Wanda (1988) "To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people."
The 65 best movie insults of all time Gangs of New York (2002) “I don’t give a tuppeny f*** about your moral conundrum, you meat-headed s*** sack.”
Miramax Films
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Hangover (2009) "You are literally too stupid to insult."
Warner Bros. Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time His Girl Friday (1940) "Listen, you insignificant, square-toed, pimple-headed spy!"
Columbia Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Home Alone (1990) "You're what the French call: 'les incompetents'."
DON SMETZER/20TH CENTURY FOX/The Kobal Collection/WireImage.com
The 65 best movie insults of all time In Bruges (2008) "YOU'RE AN INANIMATE F***ING OBJECT!"
Universal Studios/Focus Features
The 65 best movie insults of all time Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) Perry : "Look up 'idiot' in the dictionary. You know what you'll find?"
Harry : "A picture of me?"
Perry : "No! The definition of the word idiot, which you f***ing are."
REX
The 65 best movie insults of all time Knocked Up "Your face looks like Robin Williams' knuckles.”
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) "Were you always this stupid or did you take lessons?"
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) "My great aunt Jennifer ate a whole box of candy every day of her life. She lived to be 102 and when she'd been dead three days, she looked better than you do now."
Warner Bros.
The 65 best movie insults of all time Matilda (1996) "Your mummy is a TWIT."
TriStar Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Mist (2007) “I’ll tell you what. The day I need a friend like you, I’ll just have myself a little squat and s*** one out.”
REX
The 65 best movie insults of all time Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."
EMI Films
The 65 best movie insults of all time National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) If any of you are looking for any last-minute gift ideas for me, I have one. I'd like Frank Shirley, my boss, right here tonight. I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, d***less, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey s*** he is."
The 65 best movie insults of all time Parenthood (1989) "I wouldn't live with you if the world were flooded with piss and you lived in a tree."
Universal Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Phantom Thread (2018) "Are you a special agent sent here to ruin my evening and possibly my entire life?"
REX
The 65 best movie insults of all time Point Break (1991) "You're a real blue flame special, aren't you, son? Young, dumb and full of cum. What I don't know is how you got assigned here. Guess we must just have ourselves an asshole shortage, huh?"
REX
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Princess Bride (1987) "I'll explain and I'll use small words so that you'll be sure to understand, you warthog faced buffoon."
Vestron Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Say Anything (1989) "I got a question: if you guys know so much about women, how come you're here on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere?"
The 65 best movie insults of all time Scarface (1983) "Even if I were blind, desperate, starved and begging for it on a desert island, you'd be the last thing I'd ever f***."
Universal Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time School of Rock (2004) "You're tacky and I hate you"
The 65 best movie insults of all time Sexy Beast (2000) "You're the f***ing problem you f***ing Dr White honkin' jam-rag f***ing spunk-bubble!"
REX
The 65 best movie insults of all time She's All That (1999) "To everyone here who matters, you're spam. You're vapour. A waste of perfectly good yearbook space."
Miramax Films
The 65 best movie insults of all time Shrek (2000) "You dense, irritating, miniature beast of a burden."
REX
The 65 best movie insults of all time Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) "Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf herder."
20th Century Fox
The 65 best movie insults of all time Step Brothers (2008) "You're not a doctor. You're a big fat curly headed f***."
REX
The 65 best movie insults of all time There Will Be Blood (2007) "You're just the afterbirth, Eli, slithered out on your mother's filth. They should have put you in glass jar on a mantelpiece."
Paramount Vantage/Miramax Films
The 65 best movie insults of all time Three Amigos (1986) "You dirt-eating piece of slime. You scum-sucking pig. You son of a motherless goat."
Orion Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Toy Story (1995) "You are a sad strange little man, and you have my pity."
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
The 65 best movie insults of all time Wayne's World (1992) "Benjamin is nobody's friend. If Benjamin were an ice cream flavour, he'd be pralines and d***."
Paramount Pictures
The 65 best movie insults of all time Withnail & I (1987) "Monty, you terrible c***."
HandMade Films
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Wizard of Oz (1939) "You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk!"
Loew's, Inc.
The 65 best movie insults of all time The Women (1939) "You wanna see a bad facelift? Helen Danvers, two o'clock. She looks like she's re-entering the Earth's atmosphere."
REX
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child debuted in the West End in 2016 while spin-off franchise Fantastic Beasts
The Harry Potter film series drew to a close with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in 2011.
In June, four brand new stories associated with the wizarding world were released on Pottermore.
The series of short non-fiction e-books explored the “traditional folklore and magic at the heart of the series”.
Adapted from a non-fiction audiobook that accompanied the Harry Potter exhibition at the British Library in 2018, the shorts focused on specific Hogwarts lessons, including Divination, Herbology and Defence Against the Dark Arts.
Show all 10 1 /10Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 10. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald JK Rowling gifted herself a whole new world to explore with the Fantastic Beasts franchise, with five films to dial back and explore the Wizarding World as it stood in the early 20th century. While the first, and far superior entry, took place in New York, The Crimes of Grindelwald shifts the action to Paris.
And, for the majority of the film, it continues in the spirit of originality and creativity, with new beasts for Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) to tame and magical delights to be uncovered. All this good will is swiftly undone, however, in the film’s closing chapter. What follows is a baffling series of expositional conversations and meaningless connections, dragging The Crimes of Grindelwald down into the murky depths occupied by the Star Wars prequels.
Rex Features
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix The Harry Potter franchise’s greatest weakness, perhaps, was its need to mature at the same pace as its audience. And as that audience plunged into awkward adolescence, so too did the movies. The Order of the Phoenix may have its ardent supporters, but it most acutely represents the lag between the franchise’s bright-eyed, whimsical beginnings and the epic weight of its conclusion.
In the attempt to adapt the longest Potter book into the shortest Potter film, the rush to maturity looks all the more thorny. Dudley Dursley (Harry Melling) is suddenly transformed into a chain-wearing thug, while the plot works overtime to sidetrack Harry (Daniel Radcliffe)’s inevitable confrontation with Voldemort with a handy political metaphor.
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 8. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I Splitting the last Potter book into two films was, inevitably, the right decision in order to save audiences from a rushed conclusion to one of the most popular franchises ever. Yet The Deathly Hallows Part II could only shine if The Deathly Hallows Part I was willing to take the fall and act as pure set-up to its successor.
It’s arguably the most emotionally unsatisfying of the series, following Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) as they attempt to evade Voldemort’s clutches and destroy the Horcruxes, the artefacts containing the Dark Lord’s soul, the keys to his final destruction.
The film trades on conflict between the trio, as Ron’s jealousy (as influenced by the locket) serves only to prefigure his eventual future with Hermione. Even the film’s animated history lesson isn’t enough to make this film memorable.
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets The franchise’s second instalment certainly has its standout moments – it introduces both all-time legend Dobby into the game and lets Kenneth Branagh steals scene after scene as the vainglorious Gilderoy Lockhart. However, its bloated 161-minute runtime can make it tough work.
Director Chris Columbus returned with as much enthusiasm as he expressed in The Philosopher’s Stone, delivering thrills in Aragog, the basilisk, the petrifications, the Whomping Willow, and the Quidditch matches. That isn’t enough, regrettably, to fully distract from its rather dry narrative, which delivers endless plot twists about the dark history of Hogwarts and the truth behind Tom Riddle’s diary.
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Another of the adolescent-stage films of the franchise, The Half-Blood Prince could just as easily have fallen prey to The Order of the Phoenix’s tonal awkwardness, but there’s a much keener sense of the wider stakes here – Severus Snape (Alan Rickman)’s machinations make for particularly gripping viewing, culminating in a face-off that still has the propensity to shock years later.
What’s crucial, however, is the sense of balance that’s also brought to this film, as the students of Hogwarts find moments for the old magic: a Butterbeer shared with friends, or a game of Quidditch. Professor Slughorn (Jim Broadbent) provides a light sense of comic relief, alongside the now-infamous “Hermione’s got nice skin” moment between Ron and Harry.
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II Director Yates and screenwriter Steve Kloves faced the ultimate challenge with The Deathly Hallows Part II: to satisfactorily conclude a story 10 years in the making. Few would argue against their success, since the film is actually the highest rated of the entire Potter series (at 96 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes), although its reliance on narrative tricks and deceptions have made it slightly less appealing on repeated viewing.
That said, there are some bold creative decisions here that save The Deathly Hallows Part II from simply feeling like a procession of notable character deaths, including the decision to relegate some of those deaths to offscreen. It’s a film that knows how to manipulate its audience, but also knows when to show restraint.
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 4. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them The Harry Potter series became the Wizarding World with the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a film that incites instant curiosity for its cinematic frontier: 1920s New York, divided between the slick Art Deco design of MACUSA, The Magical Congress of the United States of America, the smoke-filled speakeasies (complete with goblin jazz singers and bartenders), and the dark corners inhabited by the Second Salemer witch hunters.
In one film, screenwriter Rowling and director Yates were able to establish both a visual and thematic depth to their world that feels equal to the universe of Harry and his friends. Add to that, they found an empathetic protagonist in Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander, a magical zoologist with a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Rex Features
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 3. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire At this point, the Potter series was four films in, so a change of pace had become essential to the franchise’s survival. The Triwizard Tournament fulfilled that need magnificently, allowing the introduction of a more global perspective thanks to Fleur Delacour (Clémence Poésy) and Viktor Krum (Stanislav Ianevski), alongside a neat sequence of set pieces, from deadly mermaids to dragons.
The Yule Ball also remains a visual delight. It’s an almost comically elegant backdrop for Ron, Harry, and Hermione’s youthful angst over dates and relationships. Add to that, the film boasts both Brendan Gleeson’s brilliant performance as Mad-Eye Moody and the film debut of Robert Pattinson, as Hufflepuff’s tragic hero Cedric Diggory.
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 2. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone “You’re a wizard, Harry.” And, with that, thousands of childhoods became instantly filled with wonder, never mind the looming disappointment of realising a letter from Hogwarts was never going to turn up in the post. As tempting as it may be to ridicule The Philosopher’s Stone for its badly aged special effects (poor Fluffy) and objectionable child acting, there is no replacing the magic conjured in our very first look at Hogwarts, a soft glow emanating from its many towers.
The film is a sugary sweet delight that rightly deserves its place as a modern children’s classic. It relishes in its air of joy and fantasy – and that cannot be underestimated, no matter how epic the series’ conclusion.
Every Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts film ranked 1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban The franchise’s biggest risk is also its biggest triumph. As unexpected as the move may have been to hand the reins over to Alfonso Cuarón, fresh from his sensual coming-of-age tale Y Tu Mamá También, The Prisoner of Azkaban has become the ultimate Harry Potter movie. Cuarón could subtly warp the look and feel of this word to progress towards maturity, without disrupting what had been established in the first two films.
It’s the most successful in doing so of the entire series. The balance between light and dark provides risk without sacrificing enchantment. The Dementor is the most frightening creation of this universe, while the Patronus is the most beautiful.
And yet it’s still a film grounded in character, and Cuarón does not allow the pain haunting the likes of Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) and Remus Lupin (David Thewlis) to be lost in the visual fray.
Earlier this year, Daniel Radcliffe revealed which of the eight films was his favourite – and it proved a controversial choice.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies