The Velvet Underground released four albums with Lou Reed, and one without him. There’s a reason no one ever talks about Squeeze, released three years after Loaded. It’s not very good, of course, but it also features no original members, only Doug Yuhle, who joined the VU when John Cale left.
Squeeze isn’t a Velvet Underground album, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child shouldn’t count as the eighth Harry Potter story.
Earlier today, Pottermore announced that the script for Cursed Child Parts I & II, the original Harry Potter play that J.K. Rowling said is “not a prequel,” will be released in book form on July 31. Here’s the plot synopsis:
The eighth story. Nineteen 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.
The #CursedChild script book will publish 31st July following the opening of @HPPlayLDN pic.twitter.com/8j69YfFsQO
— Little, Brown UK (@LittleBrownUK) February 10, 2016
Yes, it’s a new Harry Potter story, and it counts as canon. But the story was written by J.K. Rowling, as well as Jack Thorne and John Tiffany. Harry Potter is the singular vision of J.K. Rowling, not J.K. Rowling and some other people. That’s like George Lucas selling Star Wars to a huge corporation and…
I take back everything I said. EIGHTH HARRY POTTER BOOK.
(Via Pottermore)