Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two, the latest work in the Potter series by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne that finds Harry and his friends as adults, is eyeing a Broadway engagement, according to its creator.
At the November 10 press conference for Rowling’s latest film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the author told Playbill.com, “[With] Cursed Child, we did very much look into Broadway, but I have no dates to tell you—yet—but, certainly, we hope…” As for any other Potter property making it to the stage, she added, “There are no plans to put Fantastic Beasts onstage. Let us do the movies!”
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is officially released in movie theatres November 18, is set years before Harry Potter, “The Boy Who Lived,” is born. It follows Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a magizoologist exploring the world of magical creatures for a book that would become Harry Potter’s classroom reading material at Hogwarts.
It’s the first in a five-part series that will eventually shed light on a young Albus Dumbledore and possibly his unrequited love affair with Gellert Grindelwald and how he deals with his homosexuality. “It’s a five-part story, so there’s lots to unpack in that relationship,” she told the press. “I will say that you will see Dumbledore as a younger man and quite the troubled man because he wasn’t always the sage.” As for his sexuality, she told the press that we would have to wait and see how it is handled on film.
With stage, screen, and writing credits to her name, Rowling continues to work on other projects. “I’m still writing novels,” she says. “This is why I look so tired. I’m writing a novel and a screenplay, so novels are my first love, but if I hadn’t enjoyed… writing the first screenplay so much, I wouldn’t have said I’d keep writing.”
As previously reported, producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child confirmed that they are eyeing a New York production. Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender told The New York Times that they expect to begin conversations in London and schedule meetings in New York in the fall, but no decisions have been made.
