Harry Potter at Home Instills Magical Entertainment During COVID-19

As witches and wizards around the world face social distancing and self-quarantine during the Coronavirus pandemic, the magical publishers behind Harry Potter are uniting to bring the series to life at home.

With production for the third Fantastic Beasts film as well as the theatre productions of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child temporarily put on hold, Audible, Bloomsbury, Pottermore Publishing and Scholastic are enlisting the help of actors and celebrities to narrate Harry Potter in a new virtual read-along. 

Harry Potter At Home will cover Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone with different narrators lending their voice to reading the entire book.

Fans can listen and watching videos of the narrators at the official Harry Potter at Home website. Spotify has also made the audio version available.

As a compendium to every chapter, activities are also included on the site. Bloomsbury and Scholastic are featuring nifty magical craft videos, fun articles, quizzes, and more.

Hogwarts alumni who have been anxiously waiting for the original film actors to return to their cinematic roots will be pleasantly surprised with the first guest: Daniel Radcliffe narrates the first chapter "The Boy Who Lived." Potterheads probably do not need a refresher but Radcliffe played the young wizard throughout the eight-film franchise.

With seventeen chapters in total, more guests will join the project such as Stephen Fry, David Beckham, Dakota Fanning, Claudia Kim, Noma Dumezweni, and Eddie Redmayne.

Fans, especially parents and kids, are being encouraged to submit photos and videos to be used in future chapters using #HarryPotterAtHome and tagging @wizardingworld on social media. The official guidelines for submission are here.

In addition to Harry Potter at Home, the series is now available in more methods for those who are social distancing as much as possible.

For teachers, author J.K. Rowling opened the license for teachers to read the seven Harry Potter books aloud to their student and create virtual lessons with online videos.

With Audible, the first Harry Potter book is available to listen for free in in six different languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese). The U.S. version was originally voiced by the talented Jim Dale, and this version of the audio is helmed by the Stephen Frey version of the audiobook.

Over the coming weeks, Harry Potter at Home will continue to update with news and special appearances. Stay tuned for more information as it becomes available while enjoying the magic from the comfort of your home.