Say it ain’t so! J.K. Rowling bid farewell to Harry Potter at a London event hours before the long-awaited eighth book in the beloved series was released in bookstores worldwide.
The author, 51, spoke at the opening night of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child stage play in London’s West End theater district on Saturday, July 30, where she told fans that she’s finished with the series.
“[Harry] goes on a very big journey during these two plays and then, yeah, I think we’re done,” Rowling told Reuters on Saturday night. “This is the next generation, you know. So I’m thrilled to see it realized so beautifully but, no, Harry is done now.”
Just moments after the two-part play premiered, the accompanying rehearsal script was released across the globe as the official eighth book in the fantasy series, nearly a decade after the seventh novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, was published.
Eager fans lined up at their local bookstores on Saturday night for the midnight release of the book, also titled Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The play is set 19 years later and follows Potter and his son Albus Severus as he goes off to his father’s alma mater, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
“[The play] chimed perfectly with the material I had about the next generation and I could see it would work perfectly,” Rowling also told Reuters. “So I never wanted to write another novel, but this will give the fans something special.”
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was released on Potter and Rowling’s birthday, July 31.
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