Harry Potter is officially headed to the US.
Weeks after J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world expanded with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a film prequel to the Harry Potter books and movies set in 1940s New York, plans are underway to bring a play about the Boy Who Lived to Broadway.
The two-part Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which opened in London’s West End earlier this year, will move to New York’s Lyric Theatre in the spring 2018, Rowling’s website Pottermore announced today.
Written by Rowling and playwrights Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, the story is the eighth installment in the Harry Potter series. It catches up with adult Harry, Hermione, and Ron 19 years after the events of the …Deathly Hallows, where fans last left them. The stage play’s script was the most pre-ordered book of the year.
“The moment we opened in the West End, the inevitable question was ‘when are you going to Broadway?’”producer Sonia Friedman told Pottermore.
The Broadway play will reportedly have a different aesthetic to the West End production, although the two will share a set designer. The Lyric, which previously housed performance troupe Cirque de Soleil and the ill-fated production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, among others, will soon be renovated to meet its specifications.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child reportedly features sizable sets and special effects that require the auditorium to be slimmed down from 1,900 seats to an “intimate” 1,500.
With the overwhelming demand for the franchise—which is one of the most popular of all time—fans who want to see the production should probably preparing now. Tickets to Part I and Part II of the London play cost between £30 ($38) and £140 ($177).