Fellow Potterheads rejoice! J.K. Rowling, creator of all things quidditch and butterbeer, has officially confirmed a sequel to the beloved tale of Harry Potter. Although rumored to be a prequel for months now, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’s official synopsis was released last Thursday, October 22 on Potterhead, confirming that indeed this new addition to the story would be set after the seven original installations, specifically 19 years later: It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: Sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be a play, a deviation from the book and film mediums the general public is used to but not an entirely surprising choice considering the infinite variety of forms the international phenomenon has taken. Besides the best-selling books and films, the world of Harry Potter has appeared in amusement parks (check out Universal Studio’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter, it’s amazing), Pottermore, an online interactive extension of the story in which J.K. Rowling release new info, trivia, and chapters, and has even cropped up in academia. Yup, you read that right, the Harry Potter fandom has reached the university level. Universities like Florida State University, which offers a class named “Religion and Fantasy Lit,” also known as the Harry Potter class and Durham University, which offers “Harry Potter and the Age of Illusion,” are just two of the many institutions who have hopped on the Hogwarts Express. So the fact that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a play isn’t all that surprising really just J.K. Rowling’s next step in world domination and the fans are loving it!Just think of all the possibilities that this sequel can offer. For one fans finally get to explore all the questions that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’s epilogue left unanswered, like what house was Harry’s middle child, Albus Severus, sorted in or what has become of Harry and Draco Malfoy relationship? Set up into two parts in which the audience has the option of watching on the same day or different nights, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, will hopefully not only answer these questions but travel deeper into the aftermath of the first seven books. The synopsis seems to hint at opportunities for new challenges, such as how Harry is acclimating to adult life (a mid-life crisis if you must) and the emergence of a new adversary, but also will allow for the recurrence of older story arcs, like confronting one’s legacy and of course, battling evil. The anxieties that comes whenever a franchise as big and as loved as Harry Potter is rebooted, like whether or not it will do the characters and storyline justice, although ever so subtly present are mostly put to rest when fans hear that besides J.K. Rowling at the helm of production, Tony winner, John Tiffany is also involved. Tiffany, a big Potter fan himself is aware of the responsibility as he said:What we’re doing here is taking the biggest literary franchise the world has ever seen into theatre and it’s... Well, people are so stoked up about it. I’m conscious of bringing the fans what they love, doing this story justice and exploring the psychology of a grown up Harry Potter with the same epic sweep as the books and the films, but in a different way.I for one would have been satisfied with simply having Rowling on board, but hearing that true potterheads are inside the creative process make this all the more exciting. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child I predict will inevitably become as big of a success as its literary and big screen predecessors. The play premieres on May of 2016 at the Palace Theater in London and will start selling tickets as early as this Friday, October 30th, 2015. Until then, you’ll find me looking out the window, half expecting Pigwidgeon to come flying in with my letter from Hogwarts. This article was written by Ana Cicenia. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Jeremy Thompson from United States of America [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons