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With the final film of the Harry Potter series about to hit our screens, Alistair Harkness finds the love they have inspired sets them apart from other blockbusters

"There are so many things to enjoy about being part of this whole series of films – most of all, the affection of the fans "

1/2 The Harry Potter films have fans from all over the world 3 Daniel Radcliffe in the final Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 4 Gary Oldman as Sirius Black in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 5 Michael Gambon as headmaster Albus Dumbledore

It's early afternoon on a blazing hot July day in central London. Just off Pall Mall East, in a narrow lane hidden between the two main buildings of the National Gallery, a crew of yellow-jacketed men and women are busy constructing lighting rigs and putting the finishing touches to an artfully aged shop-front faade. Members of the public scurry past, but a few curious passers-by periodically stop to take photos. For anyone wondering why, a clue can be found in the gold lettering stencilled above the shop's fake doorway. "Ollivanders" it reads. "Makers of fine wands since 382 BC."

Those familiar with the world of Harry Potter will recognise this as the shop in which the eponymous hero of Jo Rowling's wizard saga acquires his first wand. Twenty four hours from now there will be a media scrum in this very spot as it becomes the centrepiece of an elaborate recreation of Diagon Alley, one of the sets from the Harry Potter films that is being built as a backdrop for a red-carpeted thoroughfare to the world premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

For the moment, though, its partially constructed form remains relatively invisible to the masses. Like the secret Dickensian London that exists in the books and their subsequent film adaptations, the only people who seem to notice it are those already plugged into the world of Hogwarts and all things witchcraft and wizardry.

This seems like an apt metaphor for the films, given their general standing within an industry that their astronomical success (4.1bn in grosses so far) has helped prop up over the past ten years. Sure, it has been virtually impossible to avoid Harry Potter in cinemas or in the media during this time, but despite a warm (albeit not always reverential) reception from the majority of critics, recognition come awards season – even in technical categories – has been thin on the ground, with the various bodies responsible for bestowing such things exhibiting a Muggle-like inability to appreciate any magic beyond breaking box-office records.

"You know, I think we've all made peace with that in a way," says Deathly Hallows director David Yates a few hours later at the press conference for the film. "There are so many things to enjoy about being part of this whole series of films – most of all, the affection of the fans. If you go down to Trafalgar Square at the moment you'll see a mini Glastonbury, with people from all over the world who have been camping out in the rain for the last three nights. That's more compensation than lots of trophies. It seems more important somehow."

He's not exaggerating about the festival-like vibe ahead of the premiere. With Leicester Square, the traditional venue for premieres, effectively shut down while London readies itself for the Olympics next year, Trafalgar Square has become the rallying point for Harry Potter fans from across the globe to celebrate – and mourn – the end of the series. Just a few hundred yards from the Diagon Alley replica, crowds of mostly female fans queue up to get wristbands that will allow them to enter the specially enclosed red-carpet area for the following evening's premiere.

Inside this enclosure, the global village aspect is evident in the number of makeshift signs on display. "Just thank you from all the Argentinean fans" reads one banner draped over a barrier on the east side of the square. "We dissaparated all the way from Vancouver, Canada" reads another being held aloft by two girls standing on the edge of one of Trafalgar Square's fountains. "Camped 2 days No1 Potter fan" declares a third in the midst of the numerous tents and Union Jack umbrellas providing shading from the uncharacteristic – and as it turns out, short-lived – sunshine. At a time when even unloved movies such as Transformers manage to do similar box-office business to the Harry Potter films, the real test of a movie phenomenon these days is the fanaticism it inspires and, on this evidence, Potter would appear to be streets ahead of the other fantasy sagas it has been competing with over the past ten years.

"It kind of means our childhood really," says 18-year-old Jenny Edwards, who has travelled down from Newcastle with friends Rachel, Jessica and Holly to camp out in Trafalgar Square for the next two nights. Ask them what they love about Harry Potter and they chorus, "Everything!" in unison as if it's the most idiotic question in the world.

In this respect, the Harry Potter phenomenon resembles the one that grew up around the original Star Wars trilogy, with the fans enjoying the same passionate and unique sense of ownership that comes from having a series take shape around them. Older Lucas acolytes may scoff at the comparison, but the scenes in Trafalgar Square are reminiscent of those witnessed on Hollywood Boulevard when Star Wars fans camped out to see The Phantom Menace back in 1999. As for anyone still harbouring doubts that Harry Potter means more to the kids who have come of age in the 21st century than other films of their ilk? They need only go online. The films' Facebook page currently has 28m followers, 3.5m more than closest competitor Twilight. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, meanwhile, has 5.6m followers, and Star Wars lags far behind with a relatively paltry 4.6m devotees. With stats like these, and with the saga drawing to a close after eight huge films in little under ten years, perhaps it's time to stop viewing their success in purely commercial terms – particularly since there had been no guarantee that this success could be sustained over several films.

"At the time when I read the first book and hoped to make it into a film, I thought we'd be lucky if we made another Railway Children or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," remembers producer David Hayman of his somewhat modest ambitions for the series. "I had no idea it would become what it has become."

What it has become is a film series that has actually strived to be more than just another "hot property". However flawed some of the subsequent instalments have been, the creative team deserve a lot of credit for not sanitising Rowling's source novels to make them more palatable. As they grew progressively darker, so too did the films, with death, destruction and Ralph Fiennes's rasping, malevolent turn as the evil Lord Voldemort featuring prominently from the The Goblet of Fire onwards. "Death and dealing with loss is a theme that runs throughout Jo's books and death is a big feature of the movies too," says Yates, who killed off several prominent characters in previous instalments – among them Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) and Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) – and kills off a good few more in the new film. "People are interested in death, but death as an issue isn't really something that figures in the Hollywood rule book when you make a blockbuster."

Nor is retaining a significantly British identity. "I think one of the reasons Harry Potter has worked so well is that it's culturally specific, but it's thematically universal," says Hayman. "We all know characters like Harry, Ron and Hermione, we've all had teachers like Dumbledore and Snape and Lupin and – while I hope we haven't known too many Voldemorts – these are characters who, despite being British, are relatable to people all over the world."

As such, the sense of loss now that the film series is ending is likely to be keenly felt. Back in Trafalgar Square, Leicester-based fan Sophie Beryl and her friend, Becky, have decided to start a mock support group. Their cardboard placard reads: "Struggling to say goodbye after Harry? Support group starts here."

"We think that people need help to cope after the end of this amazing series," laughs the 18-year-old. "There will be a lot of lost Potter fans out there. We're going to group them all together and make sure they're OK." They might not be the only ones in need of comforting. Asked about the saga's effect on the British film industry, Yates says: "It has created such an infrastructure that it will be sorely missed. It's going to create a huge hole."

But as producer David Barron points out, thanks to the films, the special-effects business in the UK now attracts work from around the world, including Hollywood, and the decision by Warner Bros to purchase Leavesden Studios (the base camp for all the films), will also attract new feature productions.

Just don't expect any of these to be another Harry Potter film. Hayman states categorically that Rowling has no plans to write another novel, either a prequel or a sequel further down the line. Yates, meanwhile, brushes off such speculation with talk of lightning never striking twice.

"I think there's a time and a place for certain stories and certain experiences," he says, "and I think this series of books and this series of films sit uniquely in a period of time. I think it would be a bit of a shame to try and recreate or continue them."

lHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is in cinemas from tomorrow.