Hold on to your wands, Potterheads: This may or may not be a false alarm. Last week, Warner Bros., the studio behind the eight Harry Potter movies, applied for a trademark for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child that includes rights to a movie. This is despite the fact that earlier this year, J.K. Rowling herself denied that the play, set to open at London's Palace Theatre at the end of this month, would ever be adapted for the screen.
Irish intellectual property lawyer and blogger Brian Conroy is credited with discovering the trademark application. It includes a lot of potential products, from cutlery and precious metals to clothing and "bases for making milkshakes," which, we assume, is just how these trademarks work. Still, you can't ignore Class 9, which begins: "Motion picture films featuring comedy, drama, action, adventure, and/or animation, and motion picture films for broadcast on television featuring comedy, drama, action, adventure, and/or animation."
In response to a fan's tweet in February, Rowling clearly stated that Cursed Child is a play and the movies we should be looking forward to are prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and its two sequels.
You heard wrong, I'm afraid. #CursedChild is a play. #FantasticBeasts will be 3 movies, though! https://t.co/7tvw4rolcR
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 29, 2016
But the author is allowed to change her mind about this story, which takes place 19 years after Deathly Hallows. As Conroy points out, Warner Bros. would hardly apply for this trademark without Rowling's consent. Then again, Slashfilm surmises that the studio could just be planning to film the stage version. Or, this could be a measure taken just in case. Either way, they do know the magic spell for getting curious fans riled up.
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