Why It Makes Sense to Wait Years Before Turning 'Harry Potter and the Cursed Child' I…

2016 is a good year to be a fan of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world. If you in London you can see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child performed live. If you don’t live in London, you can pick up a copy of the official script for the play. It may not be a novel like most fans are used to, but don’t let the new format fool you. This isn’t some arbitrary spin-off. The Cursed Child (pictured above) is the official eighth story in the Harry Potter saga.

And, as Rowling just revealed, it is also Harry Potter’s last story. Rowling made the declaration at the premiere of the play, telling everyone “Harry is done now.” 

That doesn’t mean Rowling is done telling stories in that world, just that Cursed Child, which takes place years after Deathly Hallows and features an adult Harry Potter, is fully intended to pass the torch from the boy who lived to a new generation. So rest assured, the door is open to more adventures at Hogwarts, Mr. Potter just will not be the focus of them.

That still does leave open an obvious question, though: will Cursed Child be turned into a movie? The play isn’t exactly light on material. It’s over five hours long. In fact, it’s so substantial it has to be performed in two parts. You have to imagine Warner Bros. is chomping at the bit to let Rowling let them turn it into a movie. And if we were the betting type, we’d wager they will. It’ll just take time.

Fortunately, time actually works to a movie’s advantage. After all, Cursed Child features a fully grown Harry Potter with kids of his own old enough to go to Hogwarts. They could make it a decade from now and still hire Daniel Radcliffe and it would actually improve the movie to have let the actors age. Radcliffe has even said he’s open to playing Potter again in the future, it just needs to depend on the script and the people making it. If you let a decade go by and then put together a reunion movie featuring all of the original cast, with David Yates directing and Rowling writing the script? That may just prove irresistible for all involved. Not to mention it would be one of the biggest movies ever. It would be brilliant– assuming everyone comes back.

But until that hypothetical day, we’ll just have to get our big screen wizard fix with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Harry Potter’s definitely not in that movie considering it takes place several decades prior to his birth, but we’re excited for it all the same. Rowling is too, apparently: she’s already written the sequel.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is out now. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be in theaters November 18, 2016.

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