On April 26, Scholastic and Bloomsbury announced that the script for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be published a day after the movie opens in theaters. “Ummm… Why?” was the first question that came to all of our minds.

Like the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child script book due out this July, the Fantastic Beasts script book will offer Harry Potter fans a glorified Xerox copy of the movie’s script. It’s not a novelization, as some may’ve hoped would happen this year, but I’m guessing it’ll have a forward from Rowling with a few additional thoughts.

Reading a movie / play script isn’t as thrilling as reading a book, but it can be interesting to see what filmmakers/playmakers were working with, and if the script offers any additional details about the story that weren’t translated on screen/stage (“Who shot first?” was answered definitively thanks to the Star Wars script, for example). Still, to most people reading a script is a bland idea. It’s difficult to sense the pacing of scenes, for example.

Despite not being a novelization, pre-orders for The Cursed Child script book have been stellar since it was announced in February. Strong sales were expected — This is officially “the eighth story,” and there were a few scary months there where we thought the only way to consume the story was to spend a lot of money to get to London. The book has been cruising at the top of Amazon’s Bestsellers list since it became available for pre-order, and the online retailer currently ranks it at #3 on its list of “Best Sellers of 2016 (So Far).”

The Cursed Child’s early success is why I think the Fantastic Beasts script book got the green light. Unlike The Cursed Child, Fantastic Beasts is penned by J.K. Rowling, making it a tempting purchase for Harry Potter fans who crave anything written by the author. Heck, it should be really exciting to everyone. One could argue that this is her first Wizarding World book since 2007’s Deathly Hallows.

And yet… Fantastic Beasts is not anywhere close to the top of the Bestsellers List. The excitement isn’t palpable like it was for Cursed Child because the movie is what we’ve all been waiting for, and it comes out a day earlier than the script.

But if anyone can get away with publishing a script for a movie and expecting it to sell, it’s J.K. Rowling. She’s one of very few authors whose fandom will bite. There are a couple others who could do this as well: Star Wars and The Lord of The Rings are the first examples that come to mind.

Which makes you wonder: Will future Star Wars films offer script books the day after each movie opens in theaters? We already buy Blu-rays with behind-the-scenes featurettes, novelizations, soundtracks, and virtually all other types of merchandise connected to stories we adore. Why shouldn’t we have the chance to buy the script too? In an age where publishers will do anything for a big hit (like publish fan fiction), why not make the script available?

One issue that may prevent a franchise like Star Wars from doing this around the film’s release date is the chance of a leak. In fact, I’m a little surprised that Warner is willing to take this risk with Fantastic Beasts. Couldn’t a potential script leak affect movie ticket sales? Or ruin big surprises for fans? Sure, fans could easily avoid reading a leaked script, but those spoilers may appear in our Facebook and Twitter feeds unexpectedly. Plus, those who are on the fence about seeing a new Wizarding World movie may be less interested if they can read the script in the comfort of their own home, then watch the movie on their Apple TV a few months later.

If script books become a thing, it won’t be the first time Harry Potter paved a path for Hollywood. It was the first book-to-film series to take a single book and turn it into multiple movies, allowing studios and all related entities to make a little more money than they would have otherwise. Twilight, The Hunger Games, and The Hobbit quickly followed in Harry’s path, and all made a lot more money than they would’ve if they didn’t split their books into additional installments.

The Harry Potter series was the only franchise who could’ve tested the book split without risking failure, and they pulled it off tremendously. I think studios and publishers will be taking a close look at how well The Cursed Child and Fantastic Beasts scripts do in book stores, and if they sell well, this trend will stretch beyond the Wizarding World.

And who knows, maybe Warner Brothers will one day publish the film scripts for the original seven Harry Potter books.

Now we’d like your thoughts…