J.K. Rowling Says A Ninth ‘Harry Potter’ Book Isn’t Happening

Here’s some pretty tragic news that you should immediately obliviate after reading.

All was going well across the pond this weekend as author J.K. Rowling’s latest installment in her magical Harry Potter series hit the London stage. Critics have been raving about Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for a while now — it’s even gotten approval from Hermione herself — so fans were pretty eager to give their own stamp of approval when it debuted at London’s West End theater.

Apparently, the show doesn’t disappoint but because scoring tickets to it is almost as difficult as getting in to see Hamilton, even more Potter maniacs were lined up outside bookstores on Sunday to take home their copy of the book based on the play. The story follows the bespectacled Chosen One 19 years after he’s defeated You-Know-Who. Harry’s now a middle-aged father of three and an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic.

The Cursed Child debuted on a very special day for Potter fans. July 31st is not only Rowling’s birthday, it’s also Harry’s — and Neville Longbottom’s but most people don’t care about that. Poor Neville. Obviously, Twitter has been having plenty of feels about the day and the release.

https://twitter.com/Zanzabarrrrr/status/759747758765043712

The new book’s already in high-demand which had some people speculating that Rowling might pick up her beloved series again — it’s been nine years since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows hit shelves. Sadly, anyone who got a bit too excited about those rumors should probably just put their wands away. Rowling gave some red carpet interviews at the opening of the new play and she took the time to completely crush any hope of more Potter novels.

“He goes on a very big journey during these two plays and then, yeah, I think we’re done,” Rowling told Reuters. “I never wanted to write another novel, but this will give the fans something special.”

Just in case you were still holding onto some hope, the author appeared on stage after the show’s standing ovation to reiterate that sentiment saying she was thrilled the play was so beautifully realized but that this was the end of the road for The Boy Who Lived.

“Harry is done now,” Rowling told the crowd.

While this news isn’t that shocking — Rowling’s been saying she’s done with the Potterverse for a while now — it’s heartbreaking all the same. It looks like we’ll just have to be content with a new book, a play, a new theme park, a spin-off movie series and maybe even a Pokemon Go-styled augmented reality game.

Man, life is rough.

(Via Reuters)