A Critique of the adaptation of Harry Potter Film, and stage performances before that, have adapted from books for centuries upon centuries, with the written story used as a basis for cinematic pieces. But today adaptations, be they from books, films, tv shows, video games, true life articles etc, are adapted further than just a film, today an entire franchise is built upon the characters and books. Most recently The Hunger Games has received this treatment with costumes, jewellery, companion books, films and a massive range of merchandise. Though like many adaptations before it, fidelity has been overshadowed in favour of a romance story, which there is in the books though it is no where near the focus that the films have given it. This is where for directors and screenwriters will struggle to adapt for their audience, a mass audience doesn’t want the Marxist tale of the oppression of the workers scared to rebel, they want the young adult love triangle. We have seen this before with films taking a different turn than the books have to gain or expand the target audience. Fidelity to text is a big question, many fans cling to their books as they become films scared that the screen version will not meet the greatness of the book. The way an author might when handing over his or her book to a screenwriter, their baby is being taken and there will be changes. There is also the challenge of, yes, it is a good film but is it a good cinematic representation of the book and did they stay true to the characters and storyline originally written? “Adaptation is undeniably an appropriation of the text, and although the plot remains the same, the telling - or the interpreting of it - radically changes from one generation to the next,” writes Deborah Cartmell in her book Interpreting Shakespeare and Film. Taking in to consideration Cartmell’s own books subject matter, Shakespeare has been interpreted and spun in several different ways through cinema and stage, from modern and period dramas. Get Over it (2001) was an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream but addressed in a manner of high school drama instead of the aristocracy. Showing how we can adapt something in such diverse manner and still keep the plot the same, this is a more modern adaptation which shows how things have changed throughout generations. In this essay I have chosen to discuss the Harry Potter book series and film franchise