The best fantasy franchise is...

Harry Potter?

According to a poll conducted by the website Moviefone and Bebo, Harry Potter has been voted the Best Fantasy Franchise in a new Internet poll. The result are striking: Harry got 73 per cent of votes, Lord of the Rings got 16, Twilight eight and lowly Chronicles of Narnia nabbed just three percent of the votes. Of course, this is probably a classic case of short-term cultural memory loss. Because of the frenzy surrounding the Half-Blood Prince release, everyone has Harry on the mind. Had you asked folks at the height of Rings mania back in 2001-2003, you might have gotten a much different answer. And probably fewer teenage girls voting. The other issue being, none of the news reports of this poll stated how the data was gathered, how many or who was surveyed, or anything else about the methodology. Maybe only catholic girls schools were targeted in online banner ads showing a half-naked Daniel Radcliffe.

--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks