Harry Potter fans already have plenty to look forward to, between the upcoming feature adaptation of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and the anticipated stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the latter of which just doubled in size. It was announced today that the West End production will be told in two parts.
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who's involved in developing Harry Potter and the Cursed Child announced the news today:
The update at Pottermore elaborates on that, including quotes from writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany. While Thorne is excited to spend more time with the characters, now that the play will be set up in two parts, John Tiffany offered the tiniest hint of a tease about the scope of the story, saying...
It shares a scale and ambition with all the Harry Potter stories so in order to do this justice we have decided to present the play in two parts.
J.K. Rowling's remark about the "epic nature of the story" added to Tiffany's words are certainly intriguing, particularly given just how ambitious and epic the Harry Potter books proved to be. Of course, it seems unlikely that we're going to see seven books worth of story told in two plays, but at the very least, it sounds like they're aiming big, and in the process, have decided to expand the story by splitting it into two plays.
We don't know a whole lot about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, apart from the involvement of Harry Potter, of course, and J.K. Rowling's determination to stress that the play (or plays, now) is not a prequel.
Beyond that, we don't know who the Cursed Child is, but Rowling has said that it's not Voldemort. At present, I'm currently theorizing that James S. Potter, Harry and Ginny's eldest child, might be the titular Cursed Child. But that's based off a very vague Tweet J.K. Rowling dropped, quoting a song from Casino Royale (as in, James Bond?). So, who knows? All we can do is guess for now and wait for more info.
If there's a downside to this news, it's the limited nature of this particular Harry Potter release. It's set to open Summer 2016 in London's West End, which is all fine and good for those within reach of the theater and the means to buy tickets. But what about all of the fans around the world who can't travel to London (twice) to see the play? Not that I want to complain here, considering how exciting it is that Harry Potter is expanding to the stage but... is anyone else experience a twinge of anxiety over this?
Tickets for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child are expected to go on sale this fall. More information on how to get on the priority booking list can be found at HarryPotterThePlay.com.
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