J. K. Rowling announced Dec. 20 that she was working on a play which will serve as a prequel to Harry Potter.

While Rowling won't be scripting the play herself she will be collaborating with the writer.

The female author, who will be a co-producer on the show, defined the play's premise in a press statement, saying that it will "explore the previously untold story of Harry's early years as an orphan and outcast."  

British theater producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender, who will also be producing the play, seem to have inspired Rowling to take the idea of a theatrical production forward. She suggested that she had been flooded with proposals for similar productions in the past but Friedman and Callender's vision and approach really appealed to her.

"Over the years I have received countless approaches about turning Harry Potter into a theatrical production, but Sonia and Colin's vision was the only one that really made sense to me, and which had the sensitivity, intensity and intimacy I thought appropriate for bringing Harry's story to the stage," she said.

Recently, it was revealed that Rowling will also be teaming up with Warner Bros. for a new Harry Potter inspired film series. The collaboration will be based on Harry Potter's Hogwart's textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be an original story and will mark Rowling's screenwriting debut. It is planned as the first picture in the new film series.

Set in the wizarding world, the story will feature magical creatures and characters, some of which will be familiar to devoted Harry Potter fans.

"Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world," said Rowling in a press statement announcing the project in September.

"The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt's story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry's gets underway," she added.

Tags: Harry Potter JK Rowling