When die-hard "Harry Potter" fans first heard that J.K. Rowling was writing a sequel to her beloved seven-part series, they couldn't wait to get their hands on the book. Then they realized the sequel wasn't going to be a book at all -- it was a play.
"Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is set to debut in London at the Palace Theatre on Harry's birthday, July 30.
But Wednesday, Rowling announced that the script of the play will in fact be released as a two-part book, at 12:01 a.m. on July 31.
The play was not written by Rowling herself. English playwright Jack Thorne wrote the script based on "an original new story" Rowling wrote with Thorne and theater director John Tiffany. It is set 19 years after the end of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the series' final book.
Harry is "an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children."