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As Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince heads towards another box office fortune the popularity of this franchise shows no signs of waning, even if it is coming to an end FOCUS notes.
One day we may identify those who came of age in the first decade of the 21st century as the Harry Potter generation.
The first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997 and the first film - which took the name favoured by the US publishers, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - followed four years later.
And so every 12 to 18 months has seen each successive story in JK Rowling's seven book canon hit the screen, eagerly awaited, then watched and re-watched by youngsters who have discovered a love of reading through the books, and a taste for cinema through their movie versions.
But all this is coming to an end. Amidst much fanfare the last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published in 2007 and production on two final films adapted from it is now underway. The story that precedes it, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, is currently posting the expected huge numbers at box offices worldwide, proving that the demand for big screen adventures featuring Harry and his friends remains undimmed.
Yet dimmed these adventures will be in a couple of years when the stories are all told. It will, for the young cast who have grown up in the roles and the scores of crew that have brought the stories to life from their Leavesden Studio base, be the end of an era.
"It will leave a big hole," agrees producer David Barron. "At the same time I'm hoping there will be renewed vigour and enthusiasm to go and do something else, to start again, but it will definitely leave a big hole because - and this sounds corny - but it has been like a huge extended family.
"It's an ego free environment which is a very unusual thing to say about a huge tentpole movie, especially a franchise like this. We're all very privileged to go to work everyday with people that we like very much. So we'll miss it."
Emma Watson was just 10 when she was cast as Hermione Granger alongside Daniel Radcliffe as Harry and Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley. Although she is looking forward to the relative calm of full time further education, she feels that the stories will always be there to be enjoyed.
"I think you underestimate the longevity of the books in this series," she says, speaking just like the fan she was before being cast in her role. "I'm sure new generations of children will keep reading the books and hopefully watching the films. We've tried to make them in a way that they will be classics, they'll hopefully be watched again and again."
If there is a feeling to the Potter franchise of being like a production line, it is not meant in any detrimental sense. Rather that, by basing the production as Leavesden - once home to another proud UK export, Rolls Royce - there is a continuity found in the standing sets of the Great Hall and Dumbledore's Study, and the familial atmosphere of a studio facility that has been adapted over time to serve the needs of this unique client.
With the likes of Barron and David Heyman - the man who first spotted the cinematic potential of the series - keeping a weather eye over proceedings this continuity is matched with the careful selection of a director well suited to handling the changing tone of each successive book.
Chris Columbus, handled the early years, Alfonso Cuaron and Mike Newell the more turbulent teenage adventures. For the coming-of-age witnessed in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and the rite-of-passage that takes us through Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to the now two part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the man in charge is David Yates.
So a holy trinity of Davids sit in judgement of a series that will soon be over, but not without delivering a few more thrills to audiences eager to follow Harry's adventure to its climax.
"I optioned the books in 1997," says David Heyman, "so this has been a huge part of my life. I've been in pre-production, production or post production since 1999 and it's been like having a real job in some ways. Each and every day I'm excited to come to work.
"I think I'm a much better producer for the people that I've worked with these best 10 years so far, soon to 12. Directors like David Yates and our actors just challenge you and make you better as a professional and hopefully as a person.
"So when it's over, and I'm sure I'll answer this question a few more times in a couple of year's time, it will be really, really, really sad but at the same time really exciting to take on new challenges with the experience that one’s gained through this."
David Heyman's Heyday Films has already developed non-Potter projects, notably The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas, Yes Man and Is Anybody There?. But neither he, nor anyone else involved in the most successful movie franchise of recent times is allowing themselves to be distracted from finishing the adaptations of Rowling’s stories, and keeping the magic of Harry Potter alive to the very last second of the final film.
"We finish shooting next spring," says the quietly spoken David Yates, "and everybody comes to work wanting to do their very best work - as they always have. And we're all making the most of it, we want to do our very best work because we know we won't go around again after part two of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."
ANWAR BRETT
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