‘Harry Potter’ Web Series Made by Hardcore Potter Fans with Skills

The most popular piece of fan-made Harry Potter entertainment produced outside the litigious confines of the JK Rowling empire involves puppet theater, a mysterious ticking noise, and one helluva catchy tune.

The hardcore Potterheads behind Potter Puppet Pals created a set of very basic felt likenesses of the major characters of Rowling’s opus way back in 2007 and since then have put their hands in those felt likenesses and those felt likenesses in compromising, creative, and comedic situations that fans love to watch. The dozen-or-so videos from Potter Puppet Pals have amassed a total somewhere north of 140 million views in the last five-or-so years.

That’s a lot of views! But Auror’s Tale just might have a shot at getting a few more.

The high-intensity action-adventure original web series set to take place in and around New York City (in both muggle and wizard locales) just recently released a trailer. It looks kinda like actors from the CW (read: young individuals who are easy on the eyes) were let loose in the underground and super secret Wizarding World of Manhattan per Michael Bay’s direction. It also looks very good. Check it out:

The action above was filmed by Leo Kei Angelos under the banner of Red Phoenix Pictures and on RED EPIC cameras. It’s also just a sampling of Angelo and his production company’s skills. The full 10-episode series will follow a storyline scribed by Cassandra Johnstone

and is set to begin its release of monthly installments this summer. Here’s a synopsis of what you can expect.

(Pro Tip: In case you don’t speak the lengua franca of whatever we’re calling this generation of young adults, an Auror is member of an elite unit of highly-trained, specialist officers trained to investigate crimes related to the Dark Arts.)

New York City is a battlefield. Dark magic rules the underworld. The NYC Department of Magical Law Enforcement (DMLE) is the only line of defense. Hawthorne is the force’s newest recruit and the dark criminals’ latest threat. Plunging into the nightmare that his occupation offers, he makes quick enemies of the most depraved wizard gang in America: the ever violent, ever twisted Hellhounds. Auror’s Tale chronicles Hawthorne’s tempestuous adventures.

It’s the wizarding world as imagined by fans that grew up with the series, created for fans that grew up with the series. It’s the magic of Potter as you have never seen it before: a high-speed, raw, and terrifically twisted ride.

Angelos, Johnstone, and company aren’t looking to make any cash on the endeavor (partly because this is a labor of love and exposure and partly because they most likely want to avoid being contacted by JK’s legal team), but stay tuned for the announcement of a soon-to-be launched Kickstarter campaign, which will help them offset production costs.

Auror’s Tale isn’t the first slick and super sweet looking piece of fan fiction inspired by a high profile entertainment property we’ve seen in recent months. In fact, this genre of online video programming seems to be getting quite popular. Kevin Tanchaeron’s Mortal Kombat short from 2010 got the director a web series with Warner Bros. and Machinima (which then got the director a movie deal), Alex Albrecht debuted his version of what a live-action Voltron would look like back in Fall 2011, and hardocre Halo fans released Helljumper in early 2012.