The first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, came out in 1997. The series about the young, beleuguered boy who found out he was the famous wizard in the world quickly became a phenomenon, and the money has been rolling in ever since. Seven books, one two-part play, eight movies and one spinoff film trilogy later, Audible and Pottermore Publishing have announced the creation of seven new audiobooks, one of each of the novels in author J.K. Rowling's heptalogy (which is a real word for a series with seven books; whip that word out and impress people at dinner).
There are two very popular Harry Potter audiobook series already out there, one voiced by Jim Dale and the other by Stephen Fry. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the two have amassed a combined 1.4 billion global listening hours since dropping on Audible in 2015. And these audiobooks started coming out in late '90s, so the total number of hours are certainly much, much higher than that. With that history, the question is: what will make these new audiobooks worth listening to?
Audible and Pottermore have a plan: these new audiobooks will include over 100 actors voices the likes of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Snape, Dumbledore and the dozens of other characters in the series. We don't know what actors will feature yet, but giving the new audiobooks an ensemble cast does at least help them stand out from the Dale and Fry versions.
The new Harry Potter audiobooks will start coming out in late 2025, which is much closer to when Max will be debuting a new live-action Harry Potter TV series based on those same books. I can't imagine the timing is a coincidence. By then, we'll all be talking about Harry Potter again, and there will be lots of money to be made.
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