What is Pottermore? J.K. Rowling Announces New Project As Online Reading Experience

Pottermore website

Harry Potter fans have been eagerly awaiting today’s announcement from J.K. Rowling about her mysterious Pottermore project.  Until today, the website displayed a purple holding page with a link to a Youtube account showing owls massing around a countdown to the announcement.

Ms Rowling is due to hold a press conference at the Victoria and Albert Museum to announce the project to the media. At midday, a Youtube video went live where J.K. Rowling herself revealed Pottermore, somewhat enigmatically, as 

‘an online reading experience unlike any other’. 

Open to the public from October, Rowling promised that the site would be ‘unique’ in that fans of the book will have an influence on the shape of the project and stated that she’d be ‘joining in’ with the experience by releasing extra information about the Harry Potter world which did not feature in the books. Rowling also confirmed that the Pottermore website will be the exclusive place to purchase audio and ebooks of the series. 

The video also contained the promise of an early entry to the site for a lucky few individuals and a link to email registration has now appeared on the main Pottermore site.

Speculation about the nature of the project has been great with favourite fan theories including an online, multiplayer game and the long promised encyclopadia of the Potterverse. News that lead actor, Daniel Radcliffe, knew nothing of the Pottermore project was seen by some to rule out the possibility of a new book and subsequent film release. Rowling has reportedly given sneak previews to certain Potter fan sites, including The Leaky Cauldron, which called the project ‘breathtaking’

The final part of the film franchise, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II, is in cinemas in the UK from the July the 15^th.