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The Canon Policy describes which collection of work can be included on the Harry Potter Books Wiki.
The first rule is that the first seven books take precedence above everything else. Therefore every other media included here has to support the canon in those seven books and has to be the work of J. K. Rowling. While the main Harry Potter Wiki uses a tier-level system to put books, films and games into a single canonic universe, our site has and will refuse any contradictory work. To help separate the different media, the site has put everything into two categories; book canon and film canon.
Background[]
J. K. Rowling published seven Harry Potter books over a period of ten years, starting with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and ending with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. She also published three companions books for charity. These are Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quidditch Through the Ages and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. Around the same time, Rowling took part in a series of interviews to support her work thus far. In 2012, she established a website called Pottermore, now Wizarding World, where she featured "New Writing by J.K. Rowling".
Rowling has continued to expand the Harry Potter universe in recent years, including a Fantastic Beasts film series for which she wrote the script. However, many of these have material that contradict the original seven books. For example, Minerva McGonagall did not starting working at Hogwarts until fifty years before Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. However, she appears in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald several decades earlier than that. Reconciling that into a single, canonic universe is difficult.
Harry Potter Books Wiki strongly supports a viewpoint that the original story in the first seven books are true canon that should take higher precedence above everything else. They build their own canonic universe separate to the films, games and other contradictory media. Any new media will be considered on case-by-case basis and judged to determine if they are supportive of this book canon. Other websites and wikis have differing viewpoints and also present canon in their own way.
Canon[]
Book canon[]
Book canon includes the first seven books, the three companion books and any other work listed below that do not contradict them. This will include some interviews, documentaries and websites.
Accepted work[]
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998)
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999)
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2000)
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003)
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005)
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2001 and 2017 editions) (although the 2017 edition was republished to include new details in support of the 2016 film, it did not contradict the first seven Harry Potter books.)
- Quidditch Through the Ages (2001)
- The Tales of Beedle the Bard (2008)
- JKRowling.com (now archived)
- Interviews (transcripts by various websites)
- Documentaries (Harry Potter and Me and J. K. Rowling: A Year in the Life)
- Auctions and exhibitions containing new details such as sketches and pages
- J.K. Rowling Originals at Wizarding World
Film canon[]
Any film or project which contradicts book canon has been labelled film canon. A few of these projects have involved Rowling.
Unaccepted work[]
- Every Warner Brothers film, including the Fantastic Beasts film series.
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
- Any video game or app based on Harry Potter (e.g. Harry Potter Electronic Arts, LEGO Harry Potter, Wonderbook: Book of Spells, Wonderbook: Book of Potions)
Illustrations[]
Harry Potter Books Wiki will only have illustrations unless the page is for something out-of-universe like J. K. Rowling. Images have to be illustrations from an official source unless permission has been given by an independent artist. These sources have been accepted: