The “Harry Potter” saga is confined to Harry’s seven years at Hogwarts, plus the flashback memories — via Tom Riddle’s diary or Dumbledore’s Pensieve — and the epilogue that shows Harry and friends as adults. But was it really the end when “Deathly Hallows” was published two years ago?
I watched ABC’s re-airing of “J.K. Rowling: A Year in the Life,” and I was intrigued by a segment that shows Rowling scribbling out family trees of the next generation: Harry and Ginny and their kids, and Ron and Hermione and their kids, plus other characters.
“So all of that could be another book,” documentarian James Runcie says.
“Yeah,” Rowling says musingly.
But she explains that she is dreaming up the characters’ ongoing lives for her own satisfaction, not because she plans to pen more yarns. However, there’s something in her faraway gaze that makes me wonder.
Since the seventh book, we’ve seen the release of “Tales of Beedle the Bard,” Rowling-penned fables that exist within the world of “Potter.” An official “Potter” encyclopedia is also coming someday — we know this from last year’s court hearing where Rowling stopped a fan from publishing an unofficial encyclopedia. I don’t entirely understand why the most powerful author in the world even noticed that project, let alone wanted to stop it.
I guess Rowling is very possessive of “Potter.” Of course, we have the movie and audiobook adaptations, plus lots of unofficial books and Web sites about the saga. But there are no “Potter” stories by other authors (discounting fan fiction, which — good or bad — can’t be considered canonical), and it doesn’t seem like there ever will be.
And absolutely no one is clamoring for “Potter” stories by other authors. If you think about it, that’s kind of odd. Certainly, this world is entirely Rowling’s. But to cite my personal favorite sagas, George Lucas (“Star Wars”), Eastman and Laird (“TMNT”) and Joss Whedon (“Buffy”) also created richly drawn worlds on their own, and in every case, they immediately invited other storytellers into the fold.
Maybe it has something to do with the solitary nature of novel writing (those other sagas started as a movie, a comic and a TV show) — Rowling can do it all herself, she doesn’t need anyone to join the team, and no one is presumptive enough to ask. Also, fans aren’t clamoring for that. Sometimes famous writers — Isaac Asimov, Tom Clancy — let other authors take a stroll in their worlds. Or sagas by deceased authors — J.R.R. Tolkien, Frank Herbert — have their doors swung open. But the buzz for such spinoffs is always rather muted.
Another explanation could be the wall-to-wall completeness of Harry’s seven years. Each book lasts one full year, from Harry’s miserable summer with the Dursleys through the end of the school year.
But I think we’ll see more Potter writings from Rowling — someday. “Deathly Hallows,” as a friend pointed out to me, is missing the Hogwarts segments, although we know something is going on there while Harry, Ron and Hermione are wandering around the countryside. And there’s that whole “next generation” angle, too.
The documentary also reveals that Rowling is working on a “political fairy tale,” and she’s taking her time on it (there’s no deadline pressure, after all).
So we know Rowling — who is a mother, a wife, and a baker of cakes, as the documentary shows — couldn’t drop writing. We also know from those family trees that she can’t drop “Potter.”
What’s your prediction — more “Potter” books, or seven and out?