JK Rowling planning new Harry Potter Book?

Rowling spoke about the future of the series in a conversation with the Today show’s Matt Lauer. “I’m afraid I haven’t been writing the next Harry Potter. Well, you know, I keep saying that I feel I’ve wrapped Harry’s story up and you gotta know when to... Look, I’ve always, I have always said, ‘Never say never’ — well not, ‘Never say never’. I’ve always said, I’m not gonna say ‘I definitely won’t’ because I don’t see why I should say that,” Rowling told Lauer.

“But I think Harry Potter 8, as in, what happened next to Harry, Ron and Hermoine...I don’t think that’s going to happen,” Rowling continued. “See, now, I heard that answer and I thought there’s hope,” Lauer told her. “So you’re not saying ‘no’!” The film franchise, based on the book series, starred Daniel Radcliffe in titular role and had eight parts, with the final two being Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2.

Rowling, who often playfully engages fans on Twitter, proved she knows how the Internet works: “I know that someone’s cutting this on YouTube to make it as though I gave you hope.” (Even Lauer chuckled that he saw the answer as giving hope.)

The author has been writing the script for the first (of three) Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movies, which is scheduled to be released on November 18, 2016. The movie is based on the 2001 companion book to the Harry Potter series that cataloged an array of magical creatures. The film will focus on Newton Scamander (the putative author), and at least some of it will take place in New York in 1920.