New Harry Potter sequel for the stage.

[The Romulan Republic]

www.cbc.ca/news/arts/harry-potter-play-sequel-1.3285601

The secret is out — the first-ever Harry Potter play will be a magical sequel.

Producers announced Friday that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will centre on an adult Harry and his son Albus Severus. The two-part stage saga begins where Rowling's books ended — 19 years after the boy wizard's epic battle with evil Lord Voldemort.

A synopsis says Harry is now an overworked civil servant in the Ministry of Magic, while his youngest son is struggling "with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted."

The play will run in two parts, intended to be seen either on the same day or on consecutive days. It previews from June 7 and opens July 30 at London's Palace Theatre.

The first play about the bespectacled wizard is based on a new story by Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.

Harry Potter's next adventure will take him to the London stage, says author J.K. Rowling
The script is by Thorne, a stage and screen writer whose work includes vampire story Let the Right One In. The director is Tiffany, who helmed the critically lauded war play Black Watch and multiple Tony Award-winning musical Once.

Details of the cast have not been announced.

Tickets go on sale Wednesday to buyers who registered online and to the general public on Oct 30. Tickets for the whole two-part show range from about $40 to just over $260.

Rowling's seven Harry Potter novels have sold more than 450 million copies around the world and been made into eight successful films.

Ron Perlman joins Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Eddie Redmayne to star in new Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
She has long insisted there will be no new Harry Potter novels, but she has kept fans happy with spin-off works including the magical encyclopedia Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is set to be a film starring Eddie Redmayne.

Interesting. Its nice to have a new sequel, but I'd prefer a book because I have no idea if this play will ever be performed where I live.

Still, I expect it'll get turned into a film eventually.

[Crazedwraith]

Not at all interested. In this or Pottermore. The Books are over. They were complete and this is completely unnecessary.

[The Romulan Republic]

Ridiculous.

The Harry Potter series created an entire world. The idea that their are no other possible stories worth telling in that setting is just stupid.

And strictly speaking, pretty much all fiction is "unnecessary". But you think their's a story worth telling, so you tell it.

Frankly, your post sounds to me like more of the usual knee-jerk fan whining.

Me, I'll give it a chance before I write it off.

Edit: And it'll be worth it just to see half the stupid fan theories and fanfics out their contradicted in one fell swoop.

[Crazedwraith]

Casting News

And the thing everyone's noticing... a black lady playing Hermione.

[The Romulan Republic]

Interesting casting choice. The racists will whine, and I won't give a damn either way.

Interestingly, it doesn't necessarily contradict canon:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bla ... b94852c333

There's an unspoken rule in literature: Characters are white unless explicitly described otherwise.
Take, for example, Hermione Granger from Harry Potter: Thanks to actress Emma Watson, we picture the character as fair-skinned with perfectly disheveled ringlets.
In a Buzzfeed article, however, writer Alanna Bennett says that there's only one line (in The Prisoner of Azkaban) that ever explicitly refers to Hermione's skin color:
“They were there, both of them, sitting outside Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor — Ron looking incredibly freckly, Hermione very brown, both waving frantically at him.”
So is the fictional character actually white? Perhaps that's a determination readers should make for themselves.
Enter "racebending:" a movement in the online Harry Potter fandom that's challenging not only the way people think about the highly popular book series, but the way people read books in general. Fans and artists take characters across film, television, and literature who have historically been portrayed as white and reimagine them as black or other non-white ethnicities.
Fanart has long been an important staple of fandom culture as a way for enthusiasts to celebrate the characters they love. With racebent fanart, Harry Potter fans on sites like Deviantart and Tumblr have produced hundreds of images that feature beloved characters from the series, particularly Harry Potter and Hermione Granger, as black, Latino, or mixed race.

DELLBELLE39.TUMBLR.COM
For many artists, Hermione's vague physical description has presented an opportunity to represent the character very differently. Instead of the "bushy" hair JK Rowling often describes in the books, maybe she has kinky-curly hair. Instead of simply being tan, maybe she has dark brown skin. A black Hermione Granger isn't just a chance to see something new, but an opportunity to create a more complex reading of the book series, which has political themes that draw parallels between the Death Eaters and racist hate groups.
According to writer and Harry Potter fandom expert Ashley Reese, fans of racebent fanart find new complexity in the books by imagining a black Hermione Granger who is marginalized in both the real world and the Wizarding world (where she's considered a "mudblood" for being not of "pure" blood).
To Reese, the idea of either Harry or Hermione being people of color seems dubious. She told The Huffington Post, "Yes, Hermione's hair is very big and very curly. Yes, she was described as very tan in one of the books after summer holiday." But if those characters were black, JK Rowling would have explicitly said so, as she always does in the text, Reese suggests.
"Frankly, white is default in most books that we read, and Hermione was never given any specific racial descriptions. It's safe to say that Hermione is a white girl."
And yet, whether or not these characters are canonically white, is besides the point for many racebending enthusiasts. There are few characters of color in popular fiction, and racebent fanart seeks to challenge the "white is default" assumption.

VONDELLSWAIN.TUMBLR.COM

VONDELLSWAIN.TUMBLR.COM
One artist, Vondell Swain, has reimagined Harry as the mixed-race son of a black James Potter and white Lily Potter. On Tumblr, Swain explained:
"My James is black because that creates the most personally compelling racial background for my Harry... It is informed by my personal desire for a black mixed-race hero story. It reflects my desire to contribute to young people of color feeling empowered by popular fiction and not othered by it. "
For Swain, and for so many other artists and fans of their work, redefining these characters as people of color allows them to see themselves reflected in a medium that often excludes them; it's a way to draw deeper meaning from a story that already has great meaning for them.
JK Rowling herself has yet to comment on whether any of her characters could be read as black or mixed race, though fans have noted subtle approval. On Twitter, the author has favorited several fan illustrations of black Harry Potter characters, and she favorited an article asking whether Hermione could possibly be black.
It's also worth noting that, in 2007, Rowling revealed that one of the most important characters in the series, Albus Dumbledore, was gay -- a fact that's never directly alluded to in the text. This suggests that the race, gender, and sexual orientations of any of the characters in the Harry Potter universe should not necessarily be taken at face value.
But the beauty of racebent fanart is that it has nothing to do with the author's intentions, the canon, or other people's opinions -- it has only to do with imagination, creativity, and an open mind.
Below are 20 beautiful examples of Harry Potter fan art that embraces that idea:

Personally, I think the case for a non-white Hermione is tenuous as hell, but if there's nothing to contradict it explicitly, why the hell not?

Edit: And I say from experience that changing race or gender in theatre is not all that uncommon anyway.

Edit: For some reason I thought this was mis-posted in the Fantastic Beasts thread, and responded accordingly, so I've fixed that. Sorry.

[Crazedwraith]

That really is tenuous. She's very brown because she's been on holiday and is tanned. It's remarked upon because it's unusual. In the same book she's described as very white as well, when she's frightened/in a panic.

[The Romulan Republic]

That really is tenuous. She's very brown because she's been on holiday and is tanned. It's remarked upon because it's unusual. In the same book she's described as very white as well, when she's frightened/in a panic.

Well, according to Rowling, she never specified Hermione's skin colour in the books (but I'm not going to go back and reread the entire series just to fact-check this).

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35149864

The eagerly anticipated, two-part play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has cast its lead characters.
Jamie Parker, currently starring in the West End show Guys and Dolls, will star as an adult Harry in the production, set 19 years after JK Rowling's books.
Noma Dumezweni, who recently stepped in at the last minute to replace Kim Cattrall in Linda at the Royal Court, will play Hermione Granger.
London Road star Paul Thornley completes the trio as Ron Weasley.
"I'm so excited with the choice of casting for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," Rowling said.
Tweet by JK RowlingImage copyrightTwitter
"I can't wait to see Jamie, Noma and Paul bring the adult Harry, Hermione and Ron to life on stage next summer."
Rowling went on to address the casting of a black actress as Hermione, saying the character's ethnicity "was never specified" in her original books.
"Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever," the author tweeted in response to a user's question.
"White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione."
Jack Thorne's two-part play - based on an original new story by Rowling, Thorne and director John Tiffany - sees Harry as both a father of three school-age children and an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic.
Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel RadcliffeImage copyrightAFP
Image caption
Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe played the leads in the Harry Potter films
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," reads a synopsis for the show.
Parker's other stage credits include being an original member of Alan Bennett's The History Boys at the National Theatre - a role he reprised on the big screen in 2006.
The 36-year-old has since been seen in such musical productions as Assassins and High Society.
Dumezweni, 45, won a best supporting actress Olivier award in 2005 for her role in A Raisin in the Sun.
The actress, who was born in Swaziland to South African parents, also starred alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Audrey Tautou in 2002 film Dirty Pretty Things.
Stage regular Thornley recently featured in Simon Pegg's romantic comedy Man Up and also appeared in ITV drama Life Begins opposite Caroline Quentin.
Previews of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child begin on 7 June at the Palace Theatre, with both plays set to open on 30 July.
Jack Thorne, JK Rowling and John TiffanyImage copyrightDebra Hurford Brown
Image caption
The play has been written by (L to R) Jack Thorne, JK Rowling and John Tiffany
The casting announcement has generated significant interest on social media, something Dumezweni jokingly highlighted on her Twitter page.
"Um... So. Just seen my feed BLOW UP," the actress tweeted on Sunday night. "What's THAT about?!"
On his own Twitter feed, Thorne said he was "so happy" the leads had been announced, describing them as "brilliant".
"Noma, Jamie & Paul will be the most brilliant three," he wrote in a follow-up post. "We're very lucky to have them."
The writer went on to "assure all doubters" that Thornley is "ginger in his soul" - a riposte to those who have suggested Ron should be played by a red-haired actor.

Odds are, of course, that a British girl with a name of Greek origin would be white. But there's just enough leeway their that I can say this doesn't explicitly violate continuity. Which is really my sole concern when it comes to changing the race of characters. It wouldn't matter in an alternate continuity, of course, but I get the impression this is meant to be a continuation of the books, and simply disregarding continuity harms the believability of the story.

Edit: Regardless, the most important quality is the skill of the actor. As to that, I can't comment, because I know virtually nothing about her.

[Kojiro]

Actually Hermione is canonically identified as white. So the canon argument at least is voided.

The racists will whine, and I won't give a damn either way.

Come on, can you honestly, really think of no reason less sinister than racism to explain why fans might like a beloved character to look like their idea of said beloved character?

[Zaune]

And it does too contradict canon, because as someone who went to a British secondary school in the Nineties I really doubt that "mudblood" would have been the only ethnic slur thrown at her.

[Coop D'etat]

Actually Hermione is canonically identified as white. So the canon argument at least is voided.

The racists will whine, and I won't give a damn either way.

Come on, can you honestly, really think of no reason less sinister than racism to explain why fans might like a beloved character to look like their idea of said beloved character?

Techically that passage refers to her skin palloring due to shock and not what skin tone she is normally. Similar to how her skin is described as brown at one point in reference to a tan she got on vacation, this can be read as being relative to whatever her normal skin colour is.

Zaune's arguement doesn't hold up either as there are Hogwarts students clearly depicted as being of varying ethnicities but insults based on that aren't used. Apparently wizards are too focused on the muggle/wizard divide to focus any effort on ethnic bigotry.

[Kojiro]

Techically that passage refers to her skin palloring due to shock and not what skin tone she is normally.

I think it's just more likely that Rowling envisioned a white Hermione. Especially since palloring does nothing to remove melanin.

[Hillary]

Does her skin colour have any bearing on the character's actions or storyline? If not, why the fuck should it matter?

I guess, aside from the odd Moor, no black actors should ever be in a Shakespeare play - and certainly no Asian or Chinese ones. I mean, they were certainly written as white characters, weren't they. No question. It would be wrong to cast a black actor as Hamlet, definitely.

[The Romulan Republic]

Coop D'etat covered a lot of this, but...

Actually Hermione is canonically identified as white. So the canon argument at least is voided.

Eh. Its not much more conclusive than the line about her skin being brown. The former says she's white but in a context, it looks like, where it could be "pale with fear" or something like that. The latter says she's brown, in a context where, as Crazedwraith brought up, the likeliest explanation is a tan from a summer vacation.

Either way, I agree that the most plausible/likely depiction for Hermione is white, just playing the statistical odds for a British girl with with a Greek (well, ancient Greek) name, with nothing spelling it out either way. I just don't see alternatives as being absolutely, definitively ruled out. So if Rowling says Hermione doesn't have to be white and isn't explicitly stated to be, I'm willing to accept that.

Come on, can you honestly, really think of no reason less sinister than racism to explain why fans might like a beloved character to look like their idea of said beloved character?

Did I say their was no other reason? No. I am tired of people on this board inferring extreme positions that I do not hold.

I'm well aware of the non-racist "Change is bad" fan whining crowd which seems to exist in all fandoms. However, the racists will probably be the most vocal and obnoxious about something like this. Though the two can certainly overlap.

And it does too contradict canon, because as someone who went to a British secondary school in the Nineties I really doubt that "mudblood" would have been the only ethnic slur thrown at her.

Maybe, but as already stated by Coop D'etat, British wizards seem to be primarily concerned with your magical heritage. After all, being a white Muggle born isn't going to win you any points with them. There seems to be a bit of prejudice about nationality, and you can infer some homophobia from the fact that Dumbledore kept his identity as a gay man fairly quiet*, but I don't recall any references to colour-based racism in the series. Ironically, if Hermione was subjected to that, it would almost certainly be from a Muggle born (or maybe half-blood) student.

*I see the gay thing, in the Potterverse, as actually being a possible extension of the Blood Purity bullshit. They're so concerned with perpetuating the family line, that having a family member who might not be as interested in having a wife and children would likely be seen as real blow.

[The Romulan Republic]

Does her skin colour have any bearing on the character's actions or storyline? If not, why the fuck should it matter?

I guess, aside from the odd Moor, no black actors should ever be in a Shakespeare play - and certainly no Asian or Chinese ones. I mean, they were certainly written as white characters, weren't they. No question. It would be wrong to cast a black actor as Hamlet, definitely.

I've done a bit of work in theatre, and from what I've seen, casting tends to be pretty flexible in terms of race and gender. Although that might partly be because I live in a city that's not terribly racially diverse, so casting options might be somewhat limited at times.

[Hillary]

Does her skin colour have any bearing on the character's actions or storyline? If not, why the fuck should it matter?

I guess, aside from the odd Moor, no black actors should ever be in a Shakespeare play - and certainly no Asian or Chinese ones. I mean, they were certainly written as white characters, weren't they. No question. It would be wrong to cast a black actor as Hamlet, definitely.

I've done a bit of work in theatre, and from what I've seen, casting tends to be pretty flexible in terms of race and gender. Although that might partly be because I live in a city that's not terribly racially diverse, so casting options might be somewhat limited at times.

Indeed - hence the rolling eyes. Hamlet is not written black by any stretch, but him being played by a black actor does not impact the role at all, as it has nothing to do with race. Othello, on the other hand, is a character who is intrinsically black - it's an integral part of the story. Therefore he has to be played by a black actor to give him any credibility (thankfully we've stopped blacking people up these days).

I guess what I'm saying is that had Hermoine been played by a black actor in the films, they would not have had to change a single word in the scripts nor rewrite any actions her character took or changed the relationships and interactions with the rest of the cast. Simply put, the colour of Hermoine's skin is simply not relevant to the world of Harry Potter in any damn way and anyone who complains about a black (or Asian, or Chinese or Mexican, etc) actor playing her really needs to look at their motives here.

[madd0ct0r]

Techically that passage refers to her skin palloring due to shock and not what skin tone she is normally.

I think it's just more likely that Rowling envisioned a white Hermione. Especially since palloring does nothing to remove melanin.

Rowling seems pretty happy about the casting.

[Crazedwraith]

I have no problem with the casting regardless of how Hermione was described. Cool try new things, appoint someone for their acting skill rather than skin colour, that's great.

But I'm sceptical of JKR claiming that Hermione was written in colourblind fashion and that she intentionally can be read as any colour. I think she wrote her as white, never specified because you don't really need to and now gets to win PC points with the tumblr crowd by going 'well I never said she was white'. (apart from where as pointed out she did)

Now there's a point there in race topics or whatever that white is assumed to be the default and that's probably wrong but that doesn't really change the fact that it's so. Maybe I am just running slap bang into my preconceptions/ am more racist that I think I am.

[The Romulan Republic]

I have no idea what Rowling pictured for Hermione, because I can't read her mind and to my knowledge, at least, she hasn't contradicted herself on the point.

Its possible she's being disingenuous, of course. But I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on that. Take Dumbledore. It is never spelled out that he is gay in the books, and most people would assume someone is probably straight without absence to the contrary. But going back and looking at Dumbledore in hindsight, their are things you could take as hints/subtext, so I tend to think Rowling did always have that in mind. Their's a lot of stuff she's expanded on outside the books that's never mentioned in the books.

[Kojiro]

Did I say their was no other reason? No. I am tired of people on this board inferring extreme positions that I do not hold.

You explicitly called out racists as being the ones to complain. Not purists concerned about canon or consistency. Your position could heave been clearer, perhaps I've just been getting used to people holding extreme views of late. My error, I apologise if I offended you. I know exactly what having positions you don't hold thrust upon you.

I personally don't care about this play. I'll never see it and Emma Watson will always define Hermione for me. But I really, really struggle to believe that Rowling, or any writer, can spend so many hours writing a character and never picture them. I could never write without imagining the characters in my head doing things.

[The Romulan Republic]

Oh, Rowling almost certainly did have a picture of Hermione in her mind. What exactly it was, I can't say. But that doesn't mean she can't be open to a range of possibilities, and frankly, I don't think anyone has more right than her to say what defines the character.

For my part, I pictured Hermione as white, but I can be flexible on that point. In any case, the way I imagined the characters was shaped first by the books, which I started on before the films came out.

[madd0ct0r]

I have no problem with the casting regardless of how Hermione was described. Cool try new things, appoint someone for their acting skill rather than skin colour, that's great.

But I'm sceptical of JKR claiming that Hermione was written in colourblind fashion and that she intentionally can be read as any colour. I think she wrote her as white, never specified because you don't really need to and now gets to win PC points with the tumblr crowd by going 'well I never said she was white'. (apart from where as pointed out she did)

Now there's a point there in race topics or whatever that white is assumed to be the default and that's probably wrong but that doesn't really change the fact that it's so. Maybe I am just running slap bang into my preconceptions/ am more racist that I think I am.

I think you might be. certainly your claims about rowling's motivations seem evidenced. The woman likes annoying people.

[jwl]

Is this play canon?

On another note, are the Pottermore illustrations canon? Because if they are, Hermione is portrayed as white in them:


Also, looking at the tweet rowling links to, somebody in that chain points out a sketch of how Rowling envisioned the characters when she was writing the books:

I don't think how the author originally envisioned them is really relevant, more what is actually canon, but there's your answer if you were wondering.

[The Romulan Republic]

Well, that would show that at some point she saw Hermione as white. Not that it should really matter. However, that's not the same as Rowling having officially spelled it out in the books.

And apparently, on the subject of canon, the play is co-written by Rowling and appears to be a sequel to the novels.

[Hillary]

And also with blonde curly hair but I doubt anyone complained that Emma Watson wasn't blonde.

[The Romulan Republic]

And also with blonde curly hair but I doubt anyone complained that Emma Watson wasn't blonde.

Huh? I might be misremembering, but I'm fairly sure Hermione is described as brown haired in the books.