Last week Pottermore hinted at a major relaunch featuring new content outside of Harry Potter’s story, and now the site has formally announced their plans.

Article Continues Below

In a press release Friday morning, Pottermore announced the site will be re-launching in “the coming weeks” with a mobile-friendly design. The new look will also allow J.K. Rowling to more easily add content.

“Positioned as the digital heart of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, it will include more original content than ever before, with entertaining features, articles and the latest news from the Wizarding World,” Pottermore says in a press release.

The site will also become a news resource for fans. “Pottermore will continue to have at its core new writing by J.K. Rowling, and will feature significantly more original content. This includes commentary and timely news items from the Pottermore Correspondent, a professional journalist hired by Pottermore especially for this role. Pottermore will showcase news relating to the Wizarding World, including the Warner Bros. feature film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, based on an original J.K. Rowling screenplay, and the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child based on a new story by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, and written by Jack Thorne, which is set to open in London in 2016.”

Pottermore is throwing out the registration requirements and plans to allow all of the content to be accessible to search engines. Currently you have to make an account to access any of the content (like the great material written by Rowling).

A report by The Bookseller offers a few screenshots of the interface. As you can tell, things have been simplified greatly:

All of these changes sound like they’re being made to help the site grow its audience. As readers of Hypable know, Pottermore has struggled to find long-term success due to its difficult navigation elements and its login requirements.

There’s also the fact that the new content hasn’t been very good in recent years. In an interview with The Bookseller, Pottermore Director of Product Anna Rafferty reveals the new site will make it easier for Jo and the site to add content:

There will also be greater opportunities for Rowling to add more content more visibly. Rafferty said: “We want to give [the fans] more and we are now able to get this to them faster. It will become a real hub of information—and the authentic heart.”

Pottermore also has a new logo created with J.K. Rowling’s own handwriting. And is that Fawkes we see in the background?

We’re eager to see what kind of exclusive content the Harry Potter author unveils on the new Pottermore. After all, the new writing by Rowling has always been the most interesting part of the website. If it’s easier for her to add content to the site, perhaps she’ll opt to debut interesting factoids on Pottermore rather than Twitter.