J.K. Rowling has had her official website redesigned and is calling new revelations there a “Christmas gift to wizard-lovers.” In her new welcoming message she talks about the unexpected year she’s had with the release of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play as well as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. And in Rowling fashion she’s also given us new wizarding world information and revealed on Twitter that she’s working on two new books.
JKRowling.com may be brand new but wizarding world fans have been getting new information from the author via the official fan site Pottermore, as well as her Twitter account (and other sources), the last few years. But the author thought it was well past time for an update. “Once upon a time, JKRowling.com was a cosy corner of cyberspace where I could share things I was writing, answer readers’ questions, debunk baseless press stories and be as serious or as frivolous as I fancied on any given day,” she wrote and said it was time to start over. The front page is apparently “a faithful representation” of her writing desk.
But she’s kept something from the old version of the site. She writes, “I haven’t forgotten the debunking function that I found so useful on my old website, though you might not find the button right away.” (I haven’t found it.) Rowling went on to discuss her very successful professional year:
2016 has been one of the busiest professional years of my life. I didn’t plan for the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them to come out in the same year, but that’s what ended up happening, with the result that 2016 meant an almost total re-immersion in the wizarding world. I’ve been absolutely delighted with the reception of both pieces: the stakes are always very high when you return to a well-loved creation, and after almost a decade of refusing to do spin-offs or remakes, I feel overwhelming relief that both long-time fans and newcomers have enjoyed what we’ve done.
In addition to her welcome, Rowling also decided to give seven (a special number to Harry Potter fans) answers to frequently asked questions. You can read them all here but here’s a few of particular interest. “Cross-continental Apparition would almost certainly result in severe injury or death,” she wrote, while explaining why Newt Scamander took a boat the the United States. “Moreover, the beasts in Newt’s case had varying magical natures. Some could have Apparated with him, but others could not.”
[Spoiler alert for Fantastic Beasts]
During the finale of Fantastic Beasts, why did the simple “revelio” spell undo the effects of Polyjuice Potion being used by Graves/Grindelwald? Easy, apparently. He wasn’t using Polyjuice Potion. “Grindelwald’s Transfiguration surpasses that of most wizards, so he used a spell, not a potion, to take on the appearance of Percival Graves,” she says. Considering the other power we learned he has just the other day, I’m very curious as to how Dumbledore eventually takes him down and am increasingly leaning toward the theory that Grindelwald willingly surrenders to him. And while it seems obvious Grindelwald would have killed the real Graves, I’m holding out hope he’s alive and can take part in Grindelwald’s downfall somehow.
Rowling mentioned she’s getting a lot of Fantastic Beasts questions but “because the answers would give away too much about future plots. If your burning question isn’t here, you are probably safe to assume that it will be answered in the sequels!” While Harry’s story may be done, new revelations from Fantastic Beasts had fans wondering why he didn’t develop an Obscurus? Rowling says “an Obscurus is developed under very specific conditions,” and since Harry didn’t even know he was a wizard, he couldn’t be traumatized by the notion or hate it.
[End Fantastic Beasts spoilers]
In addition to launching the new site, Rowling went ahead and answered a few more things on Twitter. She was asked “When do we get a new novel?” and thinks we shouldn’t be surprised to find out she’s already working on two.
I’m working on it (literally). And thank you! https://t.co/vA6CZcVhRW
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 21, 2016
I’m always working on a novel. It’s my thing. https://t.co/cJ4Bc47c35
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 21, 2016
When pressed for whether the book would be by Rowling proper or her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, she replied “one of each.”
One of each, but I’m not sure which will come out first. I’ll let you know as soon as I do! https://t.co/gFF8UZmq5W
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 21, 2016
Of course she didn’t specify whether the Rowling novel would be in the wizarding world or another topic. She’s quite busy on those Fantastic Beasts sequel screenplays but did say “There won’t be Newt Scamander novels. Only movies.”
