Cursed Child: JK Rowling confirms new Harry Potter story for the theatre

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will open at the Palace Theatre in London's West End in the summer of 2016.

Writing on Twitter Rowling said: "To answer one inevitable (and reasonable!) question -  why isn't Cursed Child a new novel? I am confident that when audiences see the play they will agree that it was the only proper medium for the story."

She clarified reports that the play will be a "prequel", instead describing it as "a new story". The first of her Harry Potter books, The Philosopher's Stone, was published in the UK exactly 18 years ago today.

Written by established TV screenwriter Jack Thorne and directed by Tony Award-winner John Tiffany, the play will also feature Rowling on the credits as co-producer.

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Thorne and Tiffany last collaborated on the hugely successful stage adaptation of 2008 Swedish horror film Let the Right One In.

Rowling said she had had "countless offers to extend Harry's story over the years" and described Thorne, Tifffany and Sonia Friedman (who is producing) as "a dream team".

Today is a very special day for two reasons. Firstly, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was published in the UK 18 years ago!

J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 26, 2015

I'm also very excited to confirm today that a new play called Harry Potter and the #CursedChild will be opening in London next year.

J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 26, 2015

It will tell a new story, which is the result of a collaboration between writer Jack Thorne, director John Tiffany and myself. #CursedChild

J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 26, 2015

Rowling first revealed she was developing a Harry Potter prequel back in 2013 when she released a statement stating the play would “explore the previously untold story of Harry’s early years as an orphan and outcast”

It is expected to include characters familiar from the seven book series and blockbusting 8-film Warner Brothers franchise, in particular the Dursley family who reluctantly cared for Harry and stowed him under the stairs after his parents were killed by Lord Voldemort.

Speculation is also rife that the production will look further into the lives of Harry’s parents, Lily and James Potter, and the events surrounding their deaths in Godric’s Hollow.

Harry Potter’s birthday is 31 July 1980 and his parents were killed on 31 October 1981 so the story is expected to be set in the 1980s prior to Harry’s enrolment at Hogwarts in 1991.

Dudley, Vernon and Petunia Dursley Rowling recently shed light on Harry’s relationship with the Dursleys writing on her Pottermore fan website. It turns out the problem wasn’t so much with the orphaned wizard but with his father who managed to offend Uncle Vernon on their very first meeting:

“James was amused by Vernon, and made the mistake of showing it," Rowling writes. "Vernon tried to patronise James, asking what car he drove. James described his racing broom."

"Vernon supposed out loud that wizards had to live on unemployment benefit. James explained about Gringotts, and the fortune his parents had saved there, in solid gold,” she continued.

"Vernon could not tell whether he was being made fun of or not, and grew angry. The evening ended with Vernon and Petunia storming out of the restaurant, while Lily burst into tears and James (a little ashamed of himself) promised to make things up with Vernon at the earliest opportunity."

The Cursed Child is not the only Harry Potter spinoff in the works as Eddie Redmayne was recently announced as the lead in three Warner Brothers films set 70 years before Harry was born and based on the Hogwarts text book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The first of the trilogy is set to hit cinemas in November 2016 and will also star Katherine Waterston and Ezra Miller. Rowling is writing all three screenplays and David Yates, who helmed the final four Potter films, has been announced as director.