When die-hard “Harry Potter” fans first heard that J.K. Rowling was writing a sequel to her beloved seven-part series, they couldn’t wait to get their hands on the book. Then they realized the sequel wasn’t going to be released in book form — she had turned it into a play. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” is set to debut in London at the Palace Theatre on the day before Harry’s birthday, July 30. But today, Rowling announced that the script of the play will in fact be released as a two-part book, at 12:01 a.m. on July 31, 2016. /b3Ks88WiZd — Pottermore (@pottermore) February 10, 2016 “Pottermore is proud to be a key part of the multi-platform effort that will allow the epic eighth Harry Potter story to be read and enjoyed by a wider, global audience,” said Susan L. Jurevics, chief executive officer of J.K. Rowling’s online home base Pottermore in an announcement on the site. The play was not written by Rowling herself. English playwright Jack Thorne wrote the script based on “an original new story” Rowling wrote with Thorne and theater director John Tiffany but never released as a book.
It is set 19 years after the end of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the series’ last book. [A black actress is cast as Hermione in new Harry Potter play, the Internet is over the moon] Harry is “an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.” In the epilogue to “Deathly Hallows,” readers learn that Harry had married Ginny Weasley, and together they had two sons, Albus and James, and a daughter, Lily. In “Harry Pottter and the Cursed Child,” Albus struggles “with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted,” the announcement said. “As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: Sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.” The play and book won’t be the only Potter-related releases this year. “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” a movie based on one of Rowling’s short “Harry Potter” companion books, hits theaters Nov. 18. Though the last “Potter” movie was released in 2011, the franchise has far from vanished from public conversation.
Rowling has written four non-Potter books — three under a pseudonym — and kept up a steady conversation with her fans across the globe on her Twitter page and Pottermore website. She regularly releases previously unknown information about the wizarding world, from major revelations such as Albus Dumbledore’s sexual orientation to minor tidbits such as the history of the wizard prison Azkaban. These addendums are the cause of much debate among fans. Some see them as Rowling’s aim to please her ginormous worldwide fanbase; others say it’s an attempt to squeeze more money out of a franchise that has already collected billions. The debate is sure to continue, possibly even after “Cursed Child.” Jurevics said today’s announcement won’t be the only development that makes 2016 exciting for Potter fans. “We have other innovative content initiatives coming soon that will also thrill and engage our vast global audience of Wizarding World fans, as well as create new ones.”
Correction: This post previously misnamed Harry’s children. Severus is the middle name of Albus, and Harry’s other son is named James. 1 × Buy Photo J.K. Rowling got in trouble for how she talks about Africa. Here’s why she may have been right. Rowling says Donald Trump is worse than He Who Must Not be Named How much it cost Harry Potter to attend Hogwarts All the documents are in PDF Format Best viewed with Adobe Reader 8.0 or later ] Government of Tamil Nadu Designed and hosted by NIC,Anne Groell, the editor of George RR Martin's epic book saga A Song of Ice and Fire which is being filmed for TV as Game of Thrones, has suggested that the series might end up with eight novels rather than the planned seven. In a Q&A with fans, she said that the series was originally a trilogy, before she cajoled Martin into writing more: "I remember when he called me, years and years back, to confess that his little trilogy was…well…no longer a trilogy. He predicted four books.
I said Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Then he said five books. Then he went to six. Well, you get it. Finally, we were on the same page. Seven Books for Seven Kingdoms. Only, as I recently learned while editing The World of Ice and Fire (another awesome thing you must buy when it comes out!), there are really technically eight kingdoms, all having to do with who has annexed what when Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros. So, maybe eight books for Seven Kingdoms would be okay." She admits that "7 [books] is what we currently have under contract," and that she is currently working with him on the "amazing" sixth book, The Winds of Winter, which isn't completed: "When I have a [publication] date, you will have a date." The World of Ice and Fire which she alludes to is a forthcoming companion book outlining the gigantic setting for the saga. Jane Johnson, his UK publisher, told the Guardian: "I know there's been some speculation that A Song of Ice and Fire may run to more than the seven books we currently have under contract, but in all honesty only George knows how many books there will be in the series and he's not saying: indeed at this stage of the writing
, with the many branching pathways of the characters' stories still to intersect, he may not know. As an editor I can say that it feels as if there's a lot to tie up in just two more novels – albeit very long novels – but if George continues to kill off characters in his usual ruthless fashion it could easily be over in the planned seven books!" The most recent instalment, A Dance With Dragons, was published in 2011, but the success of the TV show in the interim means that anticipation for the next is higher than ever. Martin is famous for spending a long time between books, frustrating fans eager for the next instalment, who have written (sometimes abusive) comments on his blog and elsewhere telling him to continue writing the series. "The more readers you have, the harder it is to keep up, and then you can't get any writing done," Martin has said. Neil Gaiman was moved to write "George RR Martin is not your bitch" on Twitter, when he was quizzed about the progress of the novels.