‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ is getting a book release

Harry Potter fans will be pleased to know an 8th book is on the way. In a surprise announcement today over on Pottermore, it was revealed that the upcoming London stage play "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is getting a book release.

Specifically, it will be a Special Rehearsal Edition of the script book of the stage play, which is based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.

As previously mentioned Harry Potter and the Curse Child Parts I & II pick up after the epilogue to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which saw an adult Harry waving off his children at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters 19 years after the Battle of Hogwartz. Here's the synopsis:

"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."

Print and digital editions will publish simultaneously after the play's world premiere this summer. Though the play will be staged in two parts, "due to the 'epic nature of the story,'" the book will comprise of the version of the play script at the time of the play’s preview performances.

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child opens for previews several weeks before its official first performance on Saturday, July 30th. The Special Rehearsal Edition of the script book will be replaced later by a Definitive Collector's Edition which will get further information about at a later date.

For fans unable to attend the play in London's West End, this is fantastic news as we won't miss out on the eighth story in Harry Potter canon.