Skip to main content

Get ready, Potterheads: JK Rowling’s eighth Harry Potter book is coming July 31

harry potter weasley clock daniel radcliffe
Warner Bros.
No, seriously — there’s really another Harry Potter book coming out.

The next installment in the monumental series will hit shelves this summer as the eighth book in the order. Scholastic announced today that it will publish the script book based on J.K. Rowling’s latest story about the beloved wizard, called Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I & II. The book comes from a play Rowling worked on with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, set to be released at 12:01 a.m. on July 31, 2016 — just in time to kick off Harry’s “birthday.”

Although it will only have been nine years since the release of the most recent installment in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the latest story is set 19 years after the events of the book. A grown-up Harry will be busy working at the Ministry of Magic and raising three school-age children with his wife, Ginny Weasley. At the same time, his past will cause problems again, and it sounds like his youngest son, Albus, will be affected as well. Darkness will ominously come from “unexpected places,” according to the synopsis from Scholastic.

Scholastic shared the news of the book’s upcoming release in a tweet, giving fans a chance to see the cover.

The Scholastic version of the book will retail for $30, and the script will also be published as an eBook by Pottermore. It’s hard to say whether or not Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will manage to attract midnight lines at bookstores like its predecessors routinely did. But the real question is: Will this new adaptation offer the same magical escapism as the original, page-turning series that swept the world and inspired a multi-billion dollar film franchise?

We’ll have to wait till this summer to find out.

Those who can get tickets to the world premiere of the play will get a chance to find out what happens a few precious hours before readers do; Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will debut on July 30 in London’s West End.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephanie Topacio Long
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
The 10 most popular movies on Netflix right now
A woman points a gun and stares.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming services in the world, with nearly 250 million subscribers. And just what do those people tend to watch? In particular, what is the most popular movie on Netflix? Each week, the streaming service releases a list of its 10 most-watched movies over a recent seven-day period to keep subscribers in the loop regarding its most popular titles.

Zack Snyder is back in the top 10 with Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver, the second film in his space opera series. Despite Snyder's popularity, the new Rebel Moon film could not unseat What Jennifer Did, which is the No. 1 movie for the second straight week. New additions to the top 10 include the comedy Knocked Up at No. 8 and the action movie Anna at No. 2. Below, we've listed the top 10 movies in the U.S. from April 15 to April 21, along with general information about each film, such as genre, rating, cast, and synopsis.

Read more
Deadpool & Wolverine: Everything we know about the film formerly known as Deadpool 3
Deadpool and Wolverine stand together in Deadpool & Wolverine.

In retrospect, we should have suspected that Deadpool & Wolverine wouldn't keep its most famous co-star out of the title. In 2022, Ryan Reynolds coaxed Hugh Jackman into reprising his role as Wolverine for the first time since 2017's Logan. Once that happened, the name Deadpool 3 didn't fully convey how monumental this film would be.

So Marvel Studios has officially retitled it as Deadpool & Wolverine. Jackman has also humorously rebranded the film as Wolverine & [expletive], which would make this R-rated flick a lot harder to market!

Read more
5 years ago, Game of Thrones aired its last great episode. Here’s why it still holds up
Jamie knights Brienne in episode 2 of Game of Thrones season 8.

Many fans would likely agree that Game of Thrones went out not with a bang, but a profound whimper. After dominating pop culture for nearly 10 years, the hit HBO series concluded with a trio of episodes that were universally reviled by both fans and critics alike. The show's lackluster, ham-fisted finale led to its popularity seemingly vanishing into thin air. In the five years since it aired, time hasn't been kind to Game of Thrones season 8.

To this day, many people still discuss the series' final season with a mix of bitterness and disbelief, and those fans won't find any disagreement about the quality of Game of Thrones' last few chapters here. As disappointing as its eighth season remains, though, April 21 marked the five-year anniversary of its noteworthy second episode, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The fan-favorite installment ranks not only as its season's best chapter, but also as the last great episode that Game of Thrones ever produced.

Read more