Fans of the "Harry Potter" franchise got excited when the official Pottermore website published a short story of what could have been if JK Rowling had continued to write about the Boy-Who-Lived well past the horrors of Voldemort. At least 15 more years past the conclusive Battle at Hogwarts.
Although fans were given a rare treat of Potter and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley and others well in their later years in the final scene where they send off their kids to Hogwarts, the fictional report by Rowling in the style of gossip news reporter Rita Skeeter showed the bespectacled Potter enjoying the Quidditch World Cup along with his famous friends. In the short story, fans reveled at the idea of a balding and scarred Potter, who with his appearance was attributed to the fact that his job as an Auror, or equivalent to the real-life elite police force officer.
New Republic said that although this may sound good considering the fact that Rowling herself has vowed to stop writing stories about Harry Potter, it was interesting how timely the story was released on the day the new Diagon Alley at the Universal Universal Studios Orlando debuted to the public. The new attraction, of which Screencrush reported to have cost over a quarter of a billion dollars, had a bit of a hiccup as the famed Hogwarts Express train was not opened for technical reasons. Although there is no doubt that the latest attraction will amass tourists by itself thanks to its impressive details, the short story itself could very well pass for a marketing ploy for fans who have yet to pay visit to the attraction, but nonetheless dreamed of going to Orlando one day.
On the other hand, Rowling's short story is somewhat timely with regard to celebrities' aggrieved relationship with the media, especially on unfounded reports that go beyond the ridiculous. Her Skeeter character is notorious in the wizarding world of twisting stories out of unsuspecting sources, and had been Potter and his friends' main source of consternation. Rowling herself is known to have a difficult relationship with the media, and Skeeter appears to be her avatar about them, the New Republic said.
Nonetheless, Rowling's story might also be an attempt to draw attention to the upcoming Harry Potter spin-off, which has yet to reach fever-pitch attraction from diehard fans. UK Culture Secretary Sajid Javid announced last week that the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," which will be based on the adventures of wizard writer Newt Scamander, will be filmed in the same Warner Bros complex in Hertfordshire, where all the original Harry Potter films were made, the Independent said. Rowling herself will be the film's screenwriter, although it remains to be known whether she would be continuing to provide her services in two of the sequels to the original.
