June 10, 2015
Where is the American Hogwarts?
by Nick Davies

J.K. Rowling has dropped hints about an American version of Hogwarts (presumably not located within a theme park).
© Kamira / Shutterstock.com
Author J.K. Rowling, creator of Rubeus Hagrid and the Floo Network, has been working on the screenplay for a spinoff from the world of Harry Potter, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Unlike the Potter books, which are set exclusively in the UK, the new film will take viewers into the American wizarding world, and fans on this side of the Atlantic are eager to find out more about the US equivalent of Hogwarts, which Rowling has been happy to hint at on Twitter.
Rowling has frequently been an informative and charming presence on Twitter. As Colin Dwyer reports for NPR, she’s used the medium to hint at upcoming projects and answer reader questions. She’s also taken to Twitter to shut down the homophobes of the Westboro Baptist Church, and express some motherly discomfort over the steamy photo shoot that Matthew Lewis (who played Neville Longbottom in all eight Potter movies) recently did for Attitude.
Over the weekend, the author answered a series of questions from fans about the forthcoming movie, which will star Eddie Redmayne in the lead role of Newt Scamander, a “magizoologist.” Rowling reveals that there is an American school of witchcraft and wizardry to complement the famous Hogwarts, and while the movie takes place in 1920s New York, that’s not where the school is located (it would presumably take some powerful spells to hide a castle in the middle of a big city). In tweets responding to readers, she says—carefully redacting the name of the school and its location—that Newt is “going to meet people who were educated at [name] in [not New York],” and discusses the school’s Native American roots:
.@loonyloolaluna Oh wait – did you mean the NAME is of American Indian origin? It isn’t. The name is of immigrant origin.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 7, 2015
.@loonyloolaluna However, indigenous magic was important in the founding of the school. If I say which tribes, location is revealed.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 7, 2015
So the door is very much still open for plenty of possibilities. Even with the knowledge that the wizarding school has some roots in Native American culture, it could be anywhere from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Plains to the Southwest to just about anywhere else, frankly. Potter fans who are dying for more will just have, as always, to wait until Rowling is good and ready to divulge any further information.
Nick Davies is a publicist at Melville House.