USA Network is ready to give fans their Hogwarts acceptance letter. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is set to fly onto the network with a weekend-long marathon beginning on Saturday, Aug. 28. In addition to airing all eight films in the Harry Potter franchise, USA Network will also air a film in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. The marathon comes just ahead of the 20-year anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in November.
The weekend-long marathon will kick off on USA Network at 9:30 a.m. ET with a viewing of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The David Yates-directed film is the second installment in the Fantastic Beasts film series, acting as a sequel to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and the 10th film in the overarching Wizarding World franchise. The film follows Newt Scamander, who is enlisted by Albus Dumbledore to help thwart Grindelwald’s plans of raising pure-blood wizards to rule over all non-magical beings. The film stars Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp.
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Following the Fantastic Beasts airing, USA Network will launch directly into the first half of its two-day Harry Potter marathon, beginning with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone at 12:24 p.m. ET. Released in 2001, the film introduced the world to J.K. Rowling’s book series and follows Harry Potter, who on his 11th birthday receives a mysterious letter from the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, “telling him he has been chosen as one of the future students of the renowned school.” The film will be followed by 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which finds Hogwarts “in the grips of a mysterious and sinister terror,” at 3:50 p.m., and 2004’s Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban at 7:30 p.m. before wrapping Saturday’s marathon with a 10:30 p.m. airing of 2005’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
The marathon will pick up again on Sunday following a brief back-to-back airing of Chicago PD and other titles when Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the 2007 fifth installment in the Harry Potter film series, broadcasts at 10:30 a.m. ET. It will be followed at 1:30 p.m. by 2009’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 airing at 8:10 p.m. and 11 p.m. The marathon will wrap up with a second airing of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix at 11 p.m., leading into an episode of Law & Order: SVU at 2 a.m.
Unable to catch the marathon? HBO Max is about to be there to save the day! The streaming service is about to be home to all eight Harry Potter films. After exclusively streaming on rival streamer Peacock, the films are set to make their way to HBO Max on Wednesday, Sept. 1.
