We are about 13 months away from a new movie set in the wonderful wizarding world of Harry Potter. That said, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them isn't technically a Harry Potter story. It takes place several decades before "the boy who lived" was even born, instead following the adventures of Newt Scamander as he researches material to write the very same textbook that Harry will eventually be taught at Hogwarts.
However, Fantastic Beasts isn't the only dose of magic fans can expect in 2016. There will indeed be an official eighth Harry Potter story released next year. It's called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. You won't be able to find it in theaters, though. And it won't be on bookshelves, either. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a stage play that'll start in London in July 2016.
The story comes straight from J.K. Rowling and her playwright partners Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, and it will show Potter's life after the ending of Deathly Hallows. Here's the official synopsis:
"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."
Sounds like a mighty good place to pick up the life and legacy of Harry Potter, right? One that might even become a movie some day, right?
Unfortunately we'll probably have to wait and see how the play is received first before that happens. We're sure Warner Bros. would be ecstatic to start making more Harry Potter movies, but J.K. Rowling is currently scratching her big-screen itch by writing the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts, so this sequel probably isn't as much of a priority.
Plus, if the play tours the world for a few years and it takes a good while for a hypothetical Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to be turned into a movie, all of the original Harry Potter cast may actually be old enough to play themselves again. Imagine how great it would be to do another Harry Potter where the actors we grew up with have actually aged several decades. That alone would be something special and surely a sight to see.
For more information about the play, which is apparently so epic it has to be told in two parts, head to the official site. Hopefully you either live in England or are willing to travel, though, because everything you read about it will probably make you mad if you can't see it in person.
