Harry Potter was a smash hit about a boy discovering he’s a wizard and going to school in a magical world full of wonder and adventure. Twilight didn’t hit quite that high a note, but the story of a teenage girl who learns her classmate is a vampire and falls in love with him did quite well. The Hunger Games popularized the dystopian genre with a bow wielding teenager stepping up to survive death games, have angsty romances, and fight the power.
As far as I can tell, nothing has quite hit that same kind of high since and it may be awhile until the next truly big wave. But if it were up to you, what would the next big thing be about?
You’re asking to predict the next lightning in a bottle. HP wasn’t popular because it was about wizards and witches. It was a combination of clever writing and right-place-right-time timing.
Star Wars wasn’t popular because it was about space, but because it was made at just the right time and hit all the right notes for society at the time. No “fun” space movies had been made for a couple of decades and SW filled that gap. But, of course, Hollywood immediately tried to capitalize on it’s success by putting out multiple poorly-made space movies that didn’t come near to the success of Star Wars.
The next Harry Potter will be an utter surprise. It might be a western, it might be space, it might be an adventure, or it might be a fantasy or even something we had never thought of before.