J.K. Rowling Announces a ‘Harry Potter’ Play Will Open in London Next Year

J.K Rowling may be done writing Harry Potter novels, but her magical empire keeps on expanding. On top of the eight movie adaptions, Universal Studios’ Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park land, and the upcoming sort-of-prequel film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rowling has officially revealed that a Harry Potter stage play set in her world of witches and wizards will hit London’s West End in 2016.

Rowling herself took to Twitter to share news about this project with her fans, but the details are scarce. We do have a title, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and we know that the script will be penned Jack Thorne and John Tiffany will direct. Rowling also claims that the production will not be a prequel and that the stage is the only possible medium to tell the story they want to tell:

Despite the scarcity of solid facts, there are are a few interesting bits worthy of speculation.

Rowling’s insistence that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child could only be a stage production and not a book or film is an interesting one. That suggests that something about the story or the way that it is told will be unique and fitted for a live performance. We’re not sure what this could mean for sure, but it certainly sounds ambitious. After all Rowling could give a thumbs up to any story set in the Potter world and make a mint, but she’s famously protective of he creation. This suggests that she and her collaborators are at least attempting something special.

And then there’s her insistence that the show will not be a prequel, which flies against some very old rumors. There were rumblings of a Harry Potter stage play back in 2013 that would follow Harry’s early days living as an abused, lonely orphan with his aunt and uncle. We don’t know how much of that is true (or if any of it is still true), but that certainly doesn’t sound like particularly compelling material. Then again, Rowling may have a different definition of prequel than the rest of us.

Since Rowling promises a debut next year, expect to hear more about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in the months ahead.