HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD Will Be Published as the 8th Harry Potter Book
J.K. Rowling recently announced that she will be publishing the script that Jack Thorne wrote for the new Harry Potter stage play currently in development. This will technically be the eighth official book in the series, and it will be called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. So for those of us who won’t be able to actually see the play, we’ll at least get to read the book, which will most likely be adapted into a film somewhere down the road.
Rowling came up with the story for the play with the help from Thorne and John Tiffany. The version of the script they will publish is the "Special Rehearsal Edition" of the script book, and it will be released in July after the play debuts. If there are any changes to the script between the published book and the opening night of the play, the book will be updated to reflect those changes in a later edition.
Here are some additional details included in the announcement at Pottermore:
Print and digital editions will publish simultaneously after the play’s world premiere this summer, and will comprise of the version of the play script at the time of the play’s preview performances.
Theatre previews allow the creative team the chance to rehearse and explore scenes further before a production’s official opening night. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opens for previews several weeks before its official first performance on Saturday 30 July and the Special Rehearsal Edition of the script book will later be replaced by a Definitive Collector’s Edition.
Readers and moviegoers last saw Harry waving off his children at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, 19 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, in the epilogue to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child picks up after that moment and is staged in two parts, due to the ‘epic nature of the story’.
This book may not be written by Rowling, but it is her vision, and I’m looking forward to learning what happened to Harry Potter, his family, and his friends in this new story. Here’s what we know about the story so far:
It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children. 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. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
There’s no doubt that fans and families are going to enjoy the opportunity to catch up with their favorite characters.