The Azkaban Lenticular Prototype: Harry Potter’s Ultimate Grail Collectible
On 9 September 2026 Goldin Auctions sold the 2004 ArtBox Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Triple Autograph card, signed by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, for $100,040, a record price for the card and the highest publicly recorded price for a Harry Potter collectible.¹ The sale received widespread attention from the major auction news outlets and there were a lot of Instagram and Facebook posts about the sale from both card and Harry Potter collectors.
1. Throughout this article, I use “collectible” as a category distinct from traditional collecting categories such as books, original artwork and props, which I treat as separate areas of Harry Potter collecting. This includes trading cards, movie posters, toys, statues and maquettes, promotional pieces, display material and other memorabilia.
The ArtBox card is not, however, what this article is about.
Everyone noticed the $100,040 card sale, but no one I know of noticed the sale that took place the very next day. On 10 September 2026, at Sotheby’s in London, another Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban collectible sold for £53,760, becoming the second-highest publicly recorded price for a Harry Potter collectible. Yet there was very little online reporting about it and I’ve been unable to find a single Instagram post or YouTube video about the sale, even though, in my view, it was the far more significant of the two.
Unless you’re a keen observer of the Harry Potter market, there’s a good chance you’ve never heard of this item before—and there’s good reason. It was never meant to see the light of day. The full-size “Have You Seen This Wizard?” lenticular prototype one sheet for the theatrical promotion of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (referred to here as the Azkaban lenticular prototype) is the rarest Harry Potter collectible in the world.² Only six finished copies are known to exist, completed after the project was abandoned and never commercially released.³ This is the first time the story of the ‘Rocket-Firing Boba Fett’ of the Harry Potter collecting hobby has been published online in full—how a cancelled prototype survived and has now, in 2026, become a £50,000 collectible.
2. The term “prototype” is the most accurate way to describe the piece and is used to distinguish these six finished posters depicting the final completed design from commercially released production examples—of which there were none. Untrimmed developmental examples are referred to separately as proofs.
3. One earlier full-size proof of the lenticular poster was printed on 22 August 2003 and featured a slightly different design to the six known completed examples. This was an untrimmed 30 × 42-inch copy (approx. 76.2 × 106.7 cm), retaining the printer’s colour bars and featuring alternative lettering. This proof was sold by Propstore in 2024 for £10,710. Other developmental material may also be out there. At least one untrimmed proof of the final design is known to exist which also retains the printer’s colour bars down the left-hand side.
The Azkaban lenticular prototype is a plastic lenticular poster measuring 25½ × 40 inches (approx. 64.8 × 101.6 cm) and depicts Gary Oldman as Sirius Black beneath the heading “Have You Seen This Wizard?”, holding his Azkaban Prison identification board. As the viewer moves past it, the lenticular image changes and Sirius disappears from view. The effect recreates the moving wanted posters seen in the film.
The full-size ‘Have You Seen This Wizard?’ lenticular prototype, shown from three viewing angles to demonstrate its changing image effect.
Photograph: Adam Houston / The Harry Potter Specialist. (The Christopher Copy)
The story of how the Azkaban lenticular prototype survived begins in 2003 when Warner Bros. were planning the theatrical marketing campaign for the film release of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004). Warner Bros. had commissioned prototypes of the poster to be made by specialist lenticular printer Wynalda Litho, based near Grand Rapids, Michigan. Wynalda already had a long history of working with major entertainment companies, producing prototypes, unusual packaging and specialist printed materials for some of the largest Hollywood studios including Warner Bros. and Disney. The idea was for the full-size lenticulars to be used in theatres in major cities across the United States. As the prototypes were going to press, however, Warner Bros. cancelled the order. The problem was cost. Developing just the template for the motion on the poster cost over $10,000 before a single poster was even printed onto plastic. A proposed print run of 2,000 would have cost around an extra $100 per poster, with smaller print runs being considerably more expensive as they occupy the machinery and prevent other work from being done. Theatres couldn’t realistically be expected to pay for posters, and the expense was difficult to justify for a film whose audience would have turned up regardless of which poster appeared in the lobby. Warner Bros. instead opted for smaller lenticular inserts on standees—something theatres would pay for—which were foil printed and much cheaper to manufacture.
Wynalda Litho, near Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the six full-size Azkaban lenticular prototypes were produced in 2003.
Google Earth imagery, Aug 2009.
Although the project had been cancelled by Warner Bros., the technicians at Wynalda completed one production sheet of the finished prototype design—yielding the six trimmed examples of the poster. The intention was to use them as finished examples to show Wynalda’s lenticular printing capabilities to other clients who might be considering having similar work done. After completion, however, they presented a problem. Given Wynalda’s longstanding relationship with Warner Bros., they couldn’t realistically remain on site after the project had been cancelled so they would ultimately have to be disposed of. The fact that they survived would come down entirely to chance.
In the week before Christmas 2003, two employees of Los Angeles-based home-video company Blue Underground travelled from Los Angeles to Wynalda Litho in Michigan to conduct a press check on an entirely separate project for their company: the lenticular DVD release of The Final Countdown (1980) (newly innovated, the lenticular packaging helped them double their sales estimate). While Christopher Lee, the art director for the Blue Underground DVD project, and his office partner Matt Kennedy were on site in Michigan, the technician showed them a very thick, wide tube which contained the six completed Prisoner of Azkaban lenticular prototypes, cut and rolled. They were told that these six constituted all the completed posters.⁴ The staff indicated to Christopher and Matt that they couldn’t keep these on the premises because they no longer had a contract for them with Warner Bros. Matt asked the technician, “What are you going to do with them?” and was told they had “to get rid of them.” Within seconds of this conversation taking place, Christopher and Matt were allowed to leave with all six rolled-up posters and headed back to the airport, bringing them back to California.⁵
4. Matt Kennedy recalls the Wynalda technician referring to the tube as containing “the six that we made” or “all that we made”. The presence of the two proof variants indicates this may not have been meant quite as literally as saying only six were made in any form—when actually the evidence indicates only six trimmed examples of the finished design were completed. Kennedy explained that one production sheet at this size yielded six posters. He was not personally involved in producing the Harry Potter prototypes; his account of their production and cancellation is based on what he and Christopher Lee were told at Wynalda Litho. The production-cost figures came from the manufacturer as a quotation for the lenticular work Blue Underground was commissioning at the time. There is currently no evidence that more than six trimmed examples of the finished design were produced.
5. In a telephone conversation with me, Matt Kennedy could not remember whether he or Christopher Lee asked if they could take them, or whether the offer to take them came from the technicians at Wynalda, but the technicians had indicated to them that if they wanted to take them they’d basically be doing them a favour as they would otherwise be discarded.
Back in Los Angeles, Christopher suggested that he and Matt split the six posters between them. “You want to split these?” he asked. Matt agreed, leaving each of them with three. Christopher wanted to give one of his copies to a former colleague and friend who was a huge Harry Potter fan, so he and Matt attended a party at the friend’s house in Van Nuys, where Christopher gave him the poster. He was delighted with it, and later had it framed.
Christopher wasn’t particularly interested in keeping the other two, so he asked Matt if he thought he could sell them. Matt thought he could get around $2,000 each for them, which Christopher was happy with. Rather than selling them on his behalf, Matt made an offer to buy the two posters himself, which Christopher accepted, leaving Matt with five of the six.
The six were not all in identical condition. Matt recalled that two of the posters were in noticeably better condition than the other four just because of the way they were cut from the original production sheet. One of them had a chip to the lower-left corner and some indentations to the upper title area, while another also had some scratches and dents to it.⁶
6. One of the posters reappeared for sale on eBay in 2015 and by that time had residue from squares of double-sided foam tape on the reverse, where it had previously been displayed improperly—the residue was apparently easily removable.
One of Matt Kennedy’s original photographs of a full-size Azkaban lenticular prototype, taken during the period in which he offered examples for sale on eBay.
Matt took to eBay to sell the posters. He auctioned two or three of them with a starting bid of just $5. One sold for around $2,400–$2,600 and the highest brought approximately $3,300. Ultimately, three of the posters passed to a movie-poster collector from Alabama. In 2011 Matt consigned one of the posters to Heritage Auctions, where the catalogue stated, “if you’re a fan of the Harry Potter series, then this is the poster to obtain for your collection” [emphasis in original]. It sold on 18 November 2011 for $3,883.75. Matt remembered being disappointed with the result, having only received around $2,500 after the auction fees, and still thinks he could have achieved more in a private sale. He believes his fifth and final example was sold privately shortly afterwards, around Christmas 2011. The reason Matt believed the posters did not sell for more at the height of the Harry Potter fandom was that their obscurity held back their value: “Nobody knew that this was an actual prototype item, so the value was completely speculative.” Collectors simply didn’t know the poster existed or recognise that it was fundamentally different from the smaller, thinner lenticular inserts used in the standees which appear for sale more regularly.
The Azkaban lenticular prototypes weren’t seen again at a major public auction until April 2018, when the Alabama movie-poster collector, who was the original eBay buyer, consigned one of his copies to Heritage Auctions. The poster—the example with the chipped corner—sold for an impressive $17,925 to a Texas-based collector. The result was so exciting that a newspaper interviewed the winning bidder, Mr Fox (not his real name), about how he felt having won the poster. Further Heritage sales of the lenticular prototypes followed over the next two years, although neither achieved the previous high, with examples selling for $12,000 in March 2019 and $5,400 in March 2020. The inconsistent prices reflected an inefficient market in which very few collectors understood what the prototypes were, how rare they were, or what they should be worth. The poster first came to my attention as a collector after the April 2018 Heritage sale, which was the first clear indication of its potential significance in Harry Potter collecting. From that point onwards, I wanted to own one for my own collection, although I wasn’t always in a position to purchase one of the copies which later became available. I’m now pleased to finally own one of the six surviving examples—photographed above—which motivated me to conduct the research for this article.
Then, on 10 September 2026, with the Harry Potter HBO series just on the horizon, the price was completely reset when one of the six posters was offered for sale through Sotheby’s in London with an estimate of £10,000–£15,000. It sold for £53,760 (approximately US$72,640).⁷ Sotheby’s provided virtually no background information on the piece and their catalogue description, in its entirety, consisted of one sentence: “This is an exceptionally rare prototype lenticular and one of only six in this size ever made.” With this meagre description behind it, the Azkaban lenticular prototype achieved the highest public auction price for any movie poster produced after 1962, even including cast-signed Star Wars posters.⁸
7. This example was framed behind plexiglass—recommended to avoid potential damage glass could cause. This may have been the copy Christopher gave to his friend in Van Nuys who later had it framed, although this is unconfirmed.
8. The most recent earlier movie poster which achieved a higher public auction price was a 1962 British quad for Dr. No, which sold at Sotheby’s in 2019 for £87,500 (estimate £12,000-£18,000).
The significance of the Sotheby’s result goes beyond the price itself. For 22 years the Azkaban lenticular prototypes had existed largely outside the awareness of even serious Harry Potter collectors, changing hands in a poorly understood market that had never really established what they were or what they were worth. Even in 2026, Sotheby’s offered the poster with virtually none of its fascinating history explained. The £53,760 result was achieved despite the origin and significance of the piece never being presented to bidders. Its extraordinary rarity, its visual intrigue and obvious connection to the film carried the day.
So, with everything we know now about the history of the Azkaban lenticular prototypes, what position should they occupy in the minds of Harry Potter collectors? I tend to divide Harry Potter collecting into four main categories: books (including rare books), props, original artwork and collectibles. ‘Collectibles’ basically accounts for pieces which don’t fall naturally within one of the traditional collecting categories—it accounts for trading cards, toys, statues/maquettes, movie posters, memorabilia, stickers, magazines and other manufactured pieces. The Azkaban prototype firmly sits in the ‘collectibles’ category. Not only that, it has the strongest claim of any Harry Potter collectible to occupy the number-one spot.
One obvious comparison is the 2004 ArtBox Triple Autograph card signed by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, which I mentioned at the beginning of this article and which has become the number-one Harry Potter trading card. The card sold at Goldin Auctions on 9 September 2026—the day before the Sotheby’s sale of the Azkaban lenticular prototype—for $100,040 (approximately £73,840), setting a new record for a Harry Potter collectible. ArtBox have not published any production figures; however, collector estimates based on known pull rates suggest that fewer than 100 were produced, with the precise number unknown. It is unquestionably one of the great Harry Potter collectibles, but the two objects derive their significance in very different ways. The ArtBox card was commercially issued specifically as a collectible; the Azkaban lenticular prototype was never commercially released. Only six examples of the finished design were completed, the project was cancelled, and the surviving posters were marooned at the printer before narrowly avoiding disposal.
History shows that the Azkaban lenticular prototype has much of the same basic DNA that has repeatedly turned ordinary collectibles into “holy grail” trophy pieces. This is why, at the beginning of this article, I referred to it as the “Rocket-Firing Boba Fett” of the Harry Potter collecting hobby. The Rocket-Firing Boba Fett is the number one piece in vintage Star Wars toy collecting, the highest-selling example achieving $1,342,000 at Goldin Auctions in August 2024. It was an officially licensed Star Wars prototype produced by Kenner in extremely limited numbers, never commercially released, with the retail figure redesigned before release and later mythologised precisely because it was never intended to reach the public. Its prototype status, extreme rarity, iconic imagery, unusual survival and delayed market recognition are the same basic ingredients that make the Azkaban lenticular prototype so compelling. Unlike the 2004 ArtBox Triple Autograph card, the Azkaban lenticular prototype does not benefit from the enormous infrastructure of the international trading-card market: population reports, grading registries or a highly sophisticated collector ecosystem. Before the Sotheby’s sale there was virtually no discussion of it among Harry Potter collectors online. Yet with almost none of that market infrastructure behind it, it became the second-highest-selling Harry Potter collectible of all time. Few Harry Potter collectibles have a documented history as unusual, intriguing and serendipitous.
The Rocket-Firing Boba Fett prototype, the holy grail piece of vintage Star Wars toy collecting. The highest-selling example achieved $1,342,000 at Goldin Auctions in August 2024. Image courtesy of Vectis, via Boba Fett Fan Club.
The next public sale of the Azkaban lenticular prototype could be fascinating. If the story behind the piece becomes widely understood—as is the aim of this article in documenting its history publicly for the first time—and serious Harry Potter collectors begin to regard it as one of the hobby’s benchmark objects, then the market will be fundamentally different from the one that produced the £53,760 Sotheby’s result. It would be a market that properly understands what the object is. The next public sale will therefore be a fascinating test of how far that recognition has developed. Taken together, I believe the evidence gives the Azkaban lenticular prototype the strongest claim of any Harry Potter ‘collectible’ to occupy the position of the hobby’s number-one collectible. The market will ultimately provide the answer.
Appendix: The Six Finished Examples
For the purposes of future documentation, the six surviving completed Azkaban lenticular prototypes are designated as:
The Van Nuys Copy
The Christopher Copy
The Texas Copy
The Washington Copy
The Kennedy Copy
The Christmas Copy
These names reflect the distinguishing early provenance of each example and provide a consistent nomenclature for future reference, research and cataloguing. Matt Kennedy recalled that two of the six were in noticeably better condition than the other four; based on the surviving provenance and condition evidence, these are believed to be the Christopher Copy and the Kennedy Copy.
There is almost certainly more to learn about the development and history of the Azkaban lenticular prototype, and I will post any updates below should further information emerge.
If you’re a collector who would genuinely like to own one of the six, please get in touch. I’m keeping a private list of interested collectors and will contact people if another example becomes available: theharrypotterspecialist@gmail.com.
How to cite this article:
Adam Houston, “The Azkaban Lenticular Prototype: Harry Potter’s Ultimate Grail Collectible,” The Harry Potter Specialist, 12 October 2026, https://www.theharrypotterspecialist.com/collectors-journal/azkaban-lenticular-prototype