Harry Potter fans are livid with Warner

Call it “Harry Potter and the Revolt of the Muggles.”

A day after Warner Bros. announced that it would be pulling the sixth “Potter” film off of its November release schedule and instead releasing it next July to take advantage of skimpy competition in the summer, fans of the popular franchise were lighting up the Internet with their rage Friday. Thousands signed online petitions, others organized boycotts and protests and a vast number expressed their reaction with tears or clenched fists.

At Petitionspot.com, more than 12,000 fans had signed a demand that “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” in postproduction in London, be returned to the long-promoted November date. Their posted comments made clear that Warner Bros. Chairman Alan Horn had, for a day at least, replaced Voldemort as the main villian in the hearts of “Potter” fans.

“They are doing this for no other reason than to make more money,” 25-year-old Brooklyn resident Patrick Allen wrote in an e-mail to The Times. “This is ridiculous and I assure you that the millions of Harry Potter fans who have been looking forward to this release will not stand for it.”

-- Geoff Boucher