As Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the 10th installment in the popular Harry Potter film franchise, and serves as a reminder of how expansive and entertaining the wizarding world created by author J.K. Rowling has been ever since the debut of the first Harry Potter novel in 1997.

Following the classic battle between good and evil within the coming-of-age story of Harry Potter and his friends, the fantasy novel series quickly became a bonafide global phenomenon and one of the best-selling, most beloved franchises of all time.

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Inevitably, the novels were adapted for a big screen series which, compared to many of its counterparts, maintained a relatively strong fidelity to the original source material and generally improved across each entry. Ultimately, the films even expanded upon and enriched the novels from which they were adapted. That was something that was present and built upon ever since the very first adaptation in 2001, with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Rowling had been reluctant to sell the cinematic license to her novel series, but ultimately sold the rights to Warner Bros. in 1999. The author then worked closely with director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steve Kloves to ensure that the translation from prose to live-action would not only be faithful, but also not contradict events in the upcoming novels at the time.

The casting of the series' main characters with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint was further elevated with a supporting ensemble of veteran British actors including Richard Harris as Albus Dumbledore, Alan Rickman as Severus Snape, and Robbie Coltrane as Rubeus Hagrid.

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While faithfully bringing its setting and characters to life, the first two installments of the film series are arguably the weakest. Though serviceable and serving as a cinematic introduction to the wider world of Harry Potter, The Sorcerer's Stone and its 2002 sequel Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets focus more on the visual spectacle than the emotional core of its characters and stories; the mystery at the heart of each narrative is more obligatory than deliberate.

There is a workmanlike attitude to the films, as if Columbus was going through a checklist of elements to include in both films rather than lean more heavily into the characters themselves.

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This was rectified by 2004's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban under new director Alfonso Cuarón. By now, the lead actors were growing into their roles as they grew up, themselves. This is perhaps one of the biggest added benefits of the novels being adapted for the screen: seeing the cast age and mature visually, which is simply assumed in print.

There is a marked contrast from Radcliffe and his co-stars' performances and appearances by the third film from their first and even second outings, and the long-game casting is beginning to pay off as early as The Prisoner of Azkaban.

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This trend continued into 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which saw an end to the innocence of its main characters when Voldemort made his full resurrection at the cost of one of Harry's classmates.

The fourth film also marked the beginning of British filmmakers helming each of the entries moving forward for the franchise, with Mike Newell bringing the British sensibilities and sense of humor omnipresent in the novels in his adaptation -- an element that would be retained by his successor.

Next Page: The Order of the Phoenix ... And Beyond

The fifth installment, 2007's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, began director David Yates' tenure with the franchise, a position he has held since, including helming both spinoff prequels. In adapting Rowling's largest novel, Yates had a keener eye than his predecessors on what story elements to streamline and jettison entirely from the, at times, unwieldy book.

Previous directors in the film series had perhaps been overly faithful to the text with Yates being less precious about the page and more interested in telling a much leaner story while maintaining the spirit of the novels and its characters.

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Yates also possessed a more palpable sense of action and urgency than had been seen in the film series before, which would serve him well to greater effect in its follow-ups, 2009's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the finale Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, released in two parts in 2010 and 2011.

The decision to split the final novel into two films, while at least partially financially motivated, also gave Yates more room to breathe and spend more time with the film's characters. A quiet moment between Harry and Hermione at his parents' graves in Godric's Hollow is one of the most poignant in the entire franchise. Harry using the Resurrection Stone for one last conversation with those he has lost over the years before facing Voldemort also showed how much Radcliffe had grown as an actor over the course of the decade.

Harry Potter Limbo

The Fantastic Beasts prequel spinoffs offer another window into the ever-expanding world that Rowling first created. Now written and co-produced by Rowling herself, the author used the faux magical textbook she had published in 2001 to serve as a springboard for a full-on immersion into the earlier days of the Wizarding World she first envisioned, providing history and backstory that had previously only been hinted at and alluded to in her novels.

While the change in setting, time period and characters is admittedly a little jarring, it is still firmly set and immediately recognizable as taking place within the same, familiar world.

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Even the popular The Lord of the Rings trilogy met with vocal disapproval by the Tolkien estate in deviating considerably from the original novels, while the following prequel trilogy around The Hobbit was lambasted for its inferior quality by critics and fans alike.

Even while serving as an executive producer, George R.R. Martin has criticized the latter seasons of Game of Thrones for deviating from what he has planned for the last two novels in his A Song of Fire and Ice series. Every year, subpar literary adaptations make it to the cinema with varying levels of success and nowhere near the acclaim, with the Divergent, Mortal Engines and Percy Jackson film series all stopping in mid-stream.

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Warner Bros. has been able to faithfully recreate and expand upon the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, largely thanks to working closely with its original creator, and expanding the author's creative input on the films as the series progressed.

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It is virtually impossible to think of the Harry Potter brand without associating them with its cast and depiction of its settings. True to the spirit of the novels, while streamlining the narratives for a more concise experience, the Harry Potter film franchise is the rare literary adaptation that not only stands proudly on its own, but also expands upon the novels to create its own surprises and twists that even longtime fans may not see coming.

In theaters now, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is directed by David Yates from a script by J.K. Rowling. The film stars Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, Johnny Depp, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, and Callum Turner.