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Which Harry Potter works are considered canon?



There are many different Harry Potter works including:



  • books

  • short stories

  • movies

  • card games

  • video games

  • toys

  • amusement parks

  • web content



Which ones are considered to be canon?



Answer



As Stu Wilson said, there's no "official corporate position" of JKR on the topic; so the exact hierarchy of canonicity is somewhat subjective and personal.


Having said that, I would like to offer what my personal preference is, together with objective explanation of why that order was chosen. (For other commonly accepted opinions, see @ibid's answer)




  1. Pottermore.





    • This is more canonical than interviews for 3 reasons:


      A. Interviews are spur of the moment things where JKR may say something off the cuff. She made mistakes in interviews before. Pottermore is "official" content she spents time to think through.


      B. Much of Pottermore content is much newer than a vast bulk of JKR interviews.


      C. JKR officially noted in 2012 that Pottermore is currently a replacement for her originally-planned HP Encyclopedia.




    • Pottermore is also more canonical than books for the reasons B and C above.




    • Note: This only applies to Pottermore content by JKR. Pottermore content NOT known to be by JKR slides down to same level as films.







  2. Original JKRowling.com website.


    I view it as Pottermore-lite, except that it was much earlier AND wasn't billed as "official encyclopedia stand-in".


    This also includes things like W.O.M.B.A.T.S. and various "gazette" type promotional materials that were at some point posted by JKR.




  3. JKR interviews where JKR clearly announced that the book is wrong (or where there's no discrepancies with the books).



    This includes things like "No, Harry wasn't a Horcrux, no matter what Dumbledore said in DH".




  4. JKR interviews and Wonderbook content where JKR contradicted the books but didn't actually acknowledge that the book was wrong (and the book was earlier than interview)


    But in case of conflict between books and interviews; I view the situation as more of "needs deeper digging" than easy and obvious "book is wrong" kind of dilemmas.


    Note: Wonderbook content not 100% known to come from JKR slides down to just above the films.




  5. HP books 1-7


    Also on this level will be the Fantastic Beasts screenplay if it is proven conclusively to be 100% in JKR's control.





  6. Supplemental JKR books (Beedle the Bard, QTTA, HP Prequel story about the bicycle, Fantastic Beasts, Daily Prophet, Wonderbook content)


    I don't have a very good reason to view main HP books as more canonical than supplementary books; so I can easily agree if someone insists on switching them in the hierarchy. As we know from this excellent asnwer, there are some discrepancies so the order may mattter.


    Also on this level is the Famous Wizard Cards from the EA games which have been confirmed to be written by JKR.




  7. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by Jack Thorne


    This has been marketed as "The Eighth Story", but wasn't written by Rowling.





  8. JKR interviews where JKR contradicted them in later books




  9. Wonderbook content which is NOT 100% known to come from JKR




  10. Fantastic Beasts Film where not proven to be from JKR screenplay


    Higher up than the other movies as JKR exercised greater creative control.





  11. HP Movies 1-8


    Personally, I don't really consider movies canon almost at all. BUT, they are marginally canonical in a sense that JKR did approve a lot of things in the movies and had feedback into them. Some people consider them to be almost as canonical as books. I consider them significantly LESS canonical.


    CAVEAT: The only case where a movie is full canon is when it's a details that's KNOWN to be approved by JKR explicitly.




  12. Facts sourced from Harry Potter amusement parks and Video Games


    This is even less canon than movies but probably a shade above fanfics if there's a reasonable suspicion JKR approved of a specific fact.





  13. Assorted fan fiction


    This is NOT canon at all as JKR didn't approve any of it.




High level, my hierarchy is:



  1. 100% sure JKR word that is planned writing, acknowledging discrepancies with prior canon (e.g. Pottermore content by JKR, jkrowling.com). Pottermore is higher within this subgroup due to being considered an official replacement for encyclopedia

  2. 100% sure JKR word that is ad-hoc (interviews/twitter), acknowledging discrepancies with prior canon

  3. JKR word where there are NO discrepancies, or they aren't acknowledged, and is planned writing

  4. JKR word where there are NO discrepancies, or they aren't acknowledged, and is ad-hoc


  5. Books 1-7

  6. Supplemental books + any material 100% authored by JKR if proven so (screenplays)

  7. JKR's prior word, contradicted by LATER info in #1-6

  8. Info from works that are under some level of creative control of JKR, but not proven to actually come from her fact-wise (movies #1-8; FB movie; Cursed Child). Within this, ordered by the degree of JKR control, e.g. #1-#8 are lower since she exercised less control.

  9. Tertiary works (Video games, Parks)


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