The ‘Harry Potter’ books have cryptic names by design, to get readers to speculate on what they mean before they delve into them and unravel the mysteries themselves.  Now fans have a new mystery to ponder: Who is the ‘Cursed Child’ in the new ‘HP’ stage production, ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ which opens in London’s West End in the summer of 2016?  The new show is NOT a prequel, but not much else is known.

J.K. Rowling isn’t spilling the (Bertie’s) beans of course.  And many of her fans had already come to a (semi) correct conclusion based on the fact that this isn’t a prequel.  But the rumors were still buzzing, so Rowling took to Twitter to clarify something– Tom Riddle/Voldemort is NOT the ‘Cursed Child’.

Rowling was adamant about ‘Cursed Child’ not being a prequel… to the extreme:

Anti-prequel?  So… a sequel then?

Rowling stated that she could not reveal if the ‘Child’ in question was a familiar character or a new one, instead quoting rock singer Chris Cornell:

“You know my name” means that either this is an existing Potter character or possibly someone whose name was mentioned in one of the books but didn’t appear.  In a book series with like a billion characters, that isn’t particularly helpful.  But at least it rules out some made-up new person, which most people were probably dreading.

Just a guess, but don’t expect it to be anyone like Draco Malfoy or Neville Longbottom– just two names fans are throwing out.  Their stories are part of Harry’s and have already been told and by the end of the book series, they really weren’t children any more.  Whatever the plot of ‘HP and the Cursed Child’ expect a full story arc.  It therefore doesn’t make sense for it to be a “lost chapter” in the existing story, which is the only way to allow for one of the main cast to be the title “child.”  If Harry and say Neville (or whoever) went off and had this completely separate adventure, why would it never have been referenced again?  Why is there never a change in their characters because of it?

That goes back to the sequel idea.  As blasphemous as it may sound, the Potter story may not have ended with ‘The Deathly Hallows’.  Cinema Blend points out that the Chris Cornell song Rowling quoted is from the soundtrack of ‘Casino Royale’ the James Bond movie.  They then point out that one of Harry and Ginny’s children is named James.  So could that be the answer?

It’s a decent guess!

What do you think?  Or would you rather wait until the play opens to find out?

Source: Cinema Blend