Cinematical

As many Harry Potter fans have heard, the next book released in the series is reported to be the last. Harry and friends will wrap up what they've set out to do, and that'll be how things will end. Or is it? Is it possible that the series could thrive on in another form, perhaps as a spin-off of some kind?

Here are my picks, in order, of the most likely scenario for spinning off the Harry Potter franchise:

7. What's Become of Neville Longbottom? -- The movies are pretty accurate in how they depict this awkward character. He's clumsy and chubby, yet somehow squeaks by in his studies. As you get through each book, though, more is revealed about his character that makes him more interesting. You see this especially in the last book, The Half Blood Prince, which I won't get into here. But could he really drive a series of his own? It really all depends on what becomes of his character come the end of the next and (reportedly) final book.

6. Harry Potter, Auror -- It's a good bet that Harry will become an auror once the 'Harry Potter and..' series has finished, but will following his duties in such a position be of any entertaining value? Some of the cases mentioned in the books seem rather dull, but if Voldmort is out of the picture (which is a safe bet come the end of this series of books), could a bigger nemesis come along to keep a new series afloat?

5. Weasleys' Wizard Weezes -- There's a lot of room for creativity with these two and their insane contraptions. But could they really carry more than one story? Probably not, actually. I mean, they've invented some great stuff, but what have they done with them besides cause mayhem and trickery? There's potential to move them onto a different route, though, one that has them working in the Ministry of Magic as developers of items to help the aurors, even work alongside them on "cases".

4. Adventures of Ron and Hermione's Kids -- At first I had considered listing Harry and [someone else who I won't mention due to spoilers]'s kids, but really, Ron and Hermione's dynamic is much more interesting. Harry, I don't care really what he's like as a parent. He'd actually most likely be boring. But imagine Ron as a parent, and Ron's parents as grandparents, and then Fred and George as uncles. That'd be entertaining.

3. Tales from Durmstrang and Beuxbatons -- This is a huge, untapped well of possibilities. We've already met some very interesting characters from both of these schools, so why not learn more about them? The stories could be completely different from those we've already been reading; no need to continue following the same old formula of one main kid and his following friends. New teachers, new kids, new creatures and a new country (or more). Hey, why not introduce another new school, one from the States? I had always wondered where the poor magical kids from the U.S. go to school.

2. The Days of James and Lily Potter -- This seems a very likely route to follow. We've seen and read many references back to the days of Harry's parents, and they're very similar to what's happening to Harry. There are favorite characters to bring back, many new adventures and origins to dive into. Of course there'd be a limitation on how many books you could do in this series, but I'm not sure that's such a bad thing, which brings me to my #1 spinoff possibility...

1. Nothing -- That's right: nothing. Just end it all after the last book, which as I mentioned is likely the next one. People are likely to get pretty tired of these stories, and I know I'd like to see it all come to one final, thrilling conclusion. End the book with a little summary of what happened to everyone in the coming years, so we can all simply leave many of their additional adventures up to our own imaginations. Let die hard fans continue to dream up their own possibilities for what their favorite characters did in their final days, and leave the series be. There's just too much potential to make this into another disaster like the neverending Wheel of Time series.