With just days to go until it hits theatres, the final installment of the Harry Potter movie franchise will make its Canadian debut in Toronto, as frenzied fans prepare for the end of the decade-long series.
The invitation-only screenings of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" in Toronto Tuesday night follow star-studded, red carpet events in New York and London.
With the gala events planned for the city's historic Casa as well as the popular downtown Scotiabank Theatre, fans were already lining up outside the Scotiabank cinemas by noon.
The movie made its world debut in the U.K. last Thursday and played again yesterday at New York's Lincoln Center -- a gala event that included stars Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, who for roughly half their lives have been playing the young wizards-in-training Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, respectively.
Radcliffe smiled and waved at fans but kept a relatively low profile at the New York screening -- saving his voice for his current singing-and-dancing role in the Broadway production of How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
Other stars on hand included Alan Rickman who rarely appears at such events despite having been with the series since its debut, playing the sinister Severus Snape.
The eight Harry Potter films have netted more than $6 billion since "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" came out in 2001, making them the highest grossing franchise in movie history. The seven-book series by British author J.K. Rowling on which they are based has sold some 450 million copies worldwide and been translated into 67 languages.
"Deathly Hallows," the last of the seven books, was split into two movies, the first of which came out last year.
David Yates has directed the last four, increasingly dark, movies. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" opens to the public on Friday.
With a report from etalk Daily's Lainey Lu
