Usually fan films are of roughly the same quality as fan fiction: terrible. There are exceptions, of course. ThisPower Rangers fan film, for example, spawned a gritty reboot. And if Harry Potter weren’t already getting an adult prequel, this would make that an inevitability.
The video, which is pretty considerable length at 25 minutes, was the brainchild of Los Angeles-based video editor Justin Zagri. It takes place in 1978 and follows the Marauders — that’s James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin if you forgot — just after they finished at Hogwarts. It opens, as all great stories do, in a bar. Then Snape walks in and everything goes to hell.
“I did a poll on our Facebook page with a few story options, and it was almost unanimous that the fans wanted a story about the Marauders,” Zagri told Buzzfeed. “So, I read the books again, did some research, and came up with a story that I feel had something to say, while making sure we got to know both Snape and the Marauders when they were transitioning into adults, and how events of their past helped shape their future.”
We won’t spoil anything, but we will say that it took only four days to shoot but a full year in video editing. The results are pretty stunning, especially for a fan film. Watch it below.
You can find a behind-the-scenes look at the process here. Fantastic Beasts, the official prequel, will be out in November.
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