Pottermore Publishes New Writing from J.K. Rowling with Revealing Details about the Magical Congress of the United States of America
Writing and video provide important backstory to the upcoming feature film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
London, England, 6 October, 2016 – ‘The Magical Congress of the United States of America,’ the third and final instalment in a collection of new original writing by J.K. Rowling entitled Magic in North America, was published on pottermore.com today. This latest writing explores the roots of America’s secret wizarding governing body, the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA). It is available exclusively on pottermore.com.
‘The Magical Congress of the United States of America,’ together with the short video, offers insightful background details for the upcoming Warner Bros. Pictures feature film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film, which marks J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut, is set in New York in 1926, and will be released worldwide on 18 November 2016.
The new writing reveals how MACUSA was formed and tracks the odyssey of its various headquarters as it moved from an enchanted edifice in the Appalachian Mountains to Williamsburg, Virginia; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and, finally, to New York City, where it was magically modified to be hidden from No-Majs (the American term for Muggles).
‘The Magical Congress of the United States of America’ also examines MACUSA’s place in American history, including the infamous ‘Country or Kind’ debate during the Revolutionary War, when members of the U.S. magical community questioned to whom they owed their allegiance. Another facet of the story looks at how the Statute of Secrecy—the law preventing wizards and witches from revealing the magical world to No-Majs—evolved.
Pottermore published two previous instalments of Magic in North America earlier this year, including ‘History of Magic in North America’ in March. This first piece of writing in the series revealed the history of North American witches and wizards, and in June, Pottermore unveiled the second instalment about Ilvermorny, the North American school of magic founded in the 17th century.
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About Pottermore
Pottermore, the digital publishing, e-commerce, entertainment and news company from J.K. Rowling, is the global digital publisher of Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. As the digital heart of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, pottermore.com is dedicated to unlocking the power of imagination. It offers news, features, and articles as well as new and previously unreleased writing by J.K. Rowling.
About J.K. Rowling
J.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series of seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, which have sold over 450 million copies worldwide, are distributed in more than 200 territories and translated into 79 languages, and have been turned into eight blockbuster films.
She has written three companion volumes in aid of charity: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in aid of Comic Relief; and The Tales of Beedle the Bard in aid of her children’s charity Lumos.
In addition to making her screenwriting debut on the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, J.K. Rowling collaborated on a stage play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two, which opened in London’s West End in the summer of 2016. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is a new play by Jack Thorne, based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany.
In 2012, J.K. Rowling’s digital entertainment and e-commerce company Pottermore was launched, where fans can enjoy her new writing and immerse themselves deeper in the wizarding world.
Her first novel for adult readers, The Casual Vacancy, was published in September 2012 and adapted for TV by the BBC in 2015. Her crime novels, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, were published in 2013 (The Cuckoo’s Calling), 2014 (The Silkworm) and 2015 (Career of Evil), and are to be adapted for a major new television series for BBC One, produced by Brontë Film and Television.
J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published in 2015 as an illustrated book, Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, and sold in aid of her charity Lumos and university–wide financial aid at Harvard.
About Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an all-new adventure returning us to the wizarding world created by J.K. Rowling. Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) stars in the central role of wizarding world Magizoologist Newt Scamander, under the direction of David Yates.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them also stars Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Carmen Ejogo, Ron Perlman, Jenn Murray, Faith Wood-Blagrove, and Colin Farrell.
The film marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, whose script was inspired by the Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by her character Newt Scamander.
The film reunites a number of people from the Harry Potter features, including producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram. Tim Lewis, Neil Blair and Rick Senat served as executive producers.
Opening November 18, 2016, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
For further information, please contact:
POTTERMORE
United States
Howard Polskin: 917-751-4407
howard.polskin@team.pottermore.com
UK & International
Rebecca Salt, 44 1620 829 800 or 44 7970 783 213
WARNER BROS
United States
Nicholas Ritchie, 212-636-5086
Nicholas.Ritchie@warnerbros.com
UK & International
Stacey Mooradian, 818-954-1310
