In a recent interview with the BBC, J.K. Rowling revealed a couple of interesting pieces of Potter-related information including an extended Harry Potter director’s cut of the books and potentially returning to the Potter universe in the future.
On speaking on the comparisons between writing The Casual Vacancy and writing Potter, Rowling remarked on the feeling of working towards deadlines against working merely for the joy of writing. In Potter, Rowling stated that there were a couple of books that she “knew needed another year” of work (but were rushed due to time commitments), in particular, a book towards the beginning and end of the series (we’re guessing Chamber of Secrets and Half-Blood Prince). However, to counter, she stated:
“And I read them, and I think ‘Oh God, maybe I’ll go back and do a director’s cut,’ I don’t know.”
Rowling didn’t elaborate on what changes or improvements she’d make, whether it would be relating to the language or if it would contain actual plot differences. We know from interviews dating back to the Potter era where she confirmed both her writer’s block on Chamber of Secrets and her fighting with the plot, by removing a key storyline that would later appear in Half-Blood Prince, which we assume to be relating to the Horcruxes. Perhaps she would return to this?
Another interesting piece of information Rowling provided was her confirmation that Harry’s story is definitely over: “Truly… where Harry’s story is concerned, I’m done.” However, she remains open to returning to the same universe should she come up with an idea that’s good enough.
Now, if I had a fabulous idea that came out of that world – because I loved writing it – I would do it. But I’ve got to have… I’ve got to have a great idea. I don’t want to go mechanically back into that world and pick up a load of odds and ends and glue them together and say, “here we go, we can sell this.”
We’d love to see her returning to the Potter world, perhaps telling the story of Hogwarts in a completely different era long before Harry’s existence.
“I hope we’ve made it really clear that this isn’t a book for children.”
Rowling also offers some interesting information on the forthcoming release of her newest novel, The Casual Vacancy, she stresses that this is very much an adult book that touches on various adult themes and is going to contain plenty of swear words.
She hopes parents will restrict young readers from gaining access to this book, especially online. However, she goes on to state that there are considerably worse things that children could be downloading from the Internet.
You can listen to the full interview with the BBC here.