Brace yourselves, Harry Potter fans. J.K. Rowling was forced to address the Harry Potter 8 question again, giving the media another opportunity to fire up their bullshit engines.
Whenever Rowling is asked – for the 1,001st, 1,002nd, 1,003rd time – if she will ever write more Harry Potter, the author politely says something along the lines of, “never say never, but no.” The author has used this same response since Deathly Hallows was published in 2007.
Such was the case on Friday morning when Matt Lauer posed the question to Rowling on The Today Show.
“I have always said never say … well, not never say never,” she told Lauer of returning to Harry. “I’ve always said I’m not going to say I definitely won’t because, because I don’t see why I should say that. You know, it’s my world and I might choose to step back into it. And in a way, I am stepping back into it [with Fantastic Beasts].”
“I think Harry Potter 8, as in what happened next to Harry, Ron and Hermione — I don’t think that’s going to happen,” she added.
“But even as I answer that I know that someone’s cutting this on YouTube to make it as though I gave you hope,” Rowling added, not realizing that Lauer’s outlet would also twist her words to give hope (“Will J.K. Rowling return to Harry Potter? ‘I’m not going to say I definitely won’t,'” read The Today Show’s headline).
Her answer was clear: Harry Potter 8 isn’t happening any time soon, and probably not ever.
But that didn’t stop outlets from spewing nonsense.
The Hollywood Reporter said Rowling “teased a new sequel”:
Entertainment Weekly was so excited that their article headline was a run-on sentence:
Yahoo! also said Rowling is “teasing” a sequel, as if she suggested it was remotely possible:
J.K. Rowling teases about a new #HarryPotter book – “I have always said never say never” http://t.co/OrszZjNGRI @jk_rowling
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) April 10, 2015
And this is just the beginning. Get ready for more misleading headlines all weekend.
We all want more stories from the Wizarding World, and we’re starting to get them again thanks to Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts movie series. I’d like everyone to stop asking the author about a mythical eighth Harry Potter book, and start asking questions like, “When are we getting a Marauders series?”
Rowling was in New York City this week to launch her Lumos campaign in the United States. We attended her launch event!
Pictured above: Rowling on top of the Empire State Building after looking through the observation deck’s viewfinder. There was no eighth Harry Potter book in sight.
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