Harry Potter Sequels: J.K. Rowling Will Be Only Writer Allowed to Pen Script

**Schiffer** · 09-18-2013

Harry Potter Sequels: J.K. Rowling Will Be Only Writer Allowed to Pen Script, Has Complete Creative Control

Last week Harry Potter fans had good reason to explode with happiness over news that their beloved series was making a big screen comeback. Today we learned more information about just what those sequel spin-off films will entail and the headline feature is author J.J. Rowling will have complete and total creative control over what goes into the films.

Don’t take ‘creative control’ lightly either, as THR.com is reporting that Rowling is enforcing creative control to it’s fullest and most complete sense. As part of her contract, the Harry Potter author is the only person who can write the screenplay for he forthcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Per a report from The Hollywood Reporter:

The Rowling deal, more than a year in the making, calls for the author herself to write the screenplay for the first film in a series that will center on Newt Scamander, a Hogwarts alum and author of the go-to textbook Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (which makes several appearances in the existingPotter canon).

The next question is will the power of creative control go to Rowling’s head and affect the final product we see on screen. It wouldn’t be the first time an author ruined their own material by wanting to write the screenplay themselves and it’s a gripe screenwriters have with authors and have had for years.

But Rowling has demonstrated her imagination is unquestioned, and at the very least we can expect a fantastical Harry Potter sequel, the only mystery is if it will be a fantastical masterpiece or a fantastical failure.