For those of us who breathed a sigh of relief when author J.K. Rowling decided to end the controversial Harry Potter book series, news of a new book set to launch this summer comes as a mix of bad news and déjà vu.
According to The Washington Post, the eighth book is actually the script for an “original new story” that Rowling wrote as a stage play along with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.
Entitled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the play is scheduled to debut in London on the day before Harry’s “birthday” – July 30.
The new story is set 19 years after the end of the last book in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and features a grown-up Harry as “an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children.”
Married to Ginny Weasley, they have two sons named Albus and James, and a daughter named Lily.
“While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted,” reads an announcement from Rowling’s website, Pottermore. “As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes darkness comes from unexpected places.”
A day after the play debuts, Rowling plans to release the script which will be in the form of a two-part book.
“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.
Unfortunately, the Potter series might be finished, but Rowling isn’t, nor have we seen the last of her wizarding tales. She is set to debut her screenwriting skills in November 2016 with the release of the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Just what our children need – more occult fiction.
Looks like the next round of the Harry Potter Wars is about to commence.