Looks like someone has been playing with the time turners again. Within the span of a few weeks, we have not only seen new pictures from the highly anticipated "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," but we have also learned about the new play that takes a peek into the future of the wizarding world.
The play, called "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," is set to come to the West End this coming summer. The story will follow a grown up Harry, now working at the Ministry of Magic, as he struggles to leave the past and all of the darkness of his childhood in the past. This is further complicated as his youngest son, Albus, becomes the titular child, merging his father's past and present. Although this is not the first Harry Potter based play fans have seen (yes, I'm looking at you "A Very Potter Musical" and your two sequels), it is the first to be officially licensed and associated with J.K. Rowling. With her full support behind it, every "Potter" fan will be flocking to the theater faster than you can say "mischief managed."
For awhile now, fans have been looking forward to the movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," a new story written by J.K. Rowling herself, depicting the adventures of Newt Scamander. Scamander is a famous wizard, played by Academy-Award winner Eddie Redmayne ("Les Miserables" and "The Theory of Everything"), who writes the titular book, which becomes one of Harry Potter's textbooks while at Hogwarts. He will also eventually be the grandfather-in-law to Luna Lovegood. The film, which takes place seventy years before the events of the first eight movies, in the 1920s, will show Scamander's travels to America and his dealings with the magical community there. Rowling has always noted that there are magical people outside of Britain, including Bulgaria, France, and now America, where the shock from the Salem Witch Trials lives on. The film, which will be directed by David Yates who directed the last four "Potter" films, has released official photos this past week, not only of Redmayne in character, but they give the fans a glimpse into this old, but new to us, magical world.
With both of these projects underway, in addition to the ever-growing Wizarding World of Harry Potter and the "Harry Potter" Studio Tour, I think it's safe to say that fans will continue to be content and absorbed in the series that defined their childhood long into the future.
