Jim Kay’s Illustrated “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” Has a Release Date and Page Count
Since the 2019 release of the illustrated edition of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, fans have been waiting for any scrap of news regarding the highly anticipated follow-up, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Illustrated Edition. Though Potter fans already have copies of Order of the Phoenix in their collections, it’s Jim Kay’s gorgeous artistic interpretations of the text that collectors have been clamoring for. In the interim, some Jim Kay illustrations were featured in last October’s Harry Potter: A Magical Year, but it was no substitute for what Kay has in store for the fifth book. Thankfully, 2022 brought with it some phenomenal news.
After years of little to no news, it was finally revealed late last month that the illustrated Order of the Phoenix would be released on October 11, just in time for the holiday season. Even better, we learned that there won’t be any more waiting since both the standard and deluxe editions will be released on the same day. So it’s time to grab your calendar and start counting down the days.
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And the news continues to flow because earlier this week, an Amazon preorder listing appeared online, revealing that the collector’s edition of the illustrated Order of the Phoenix will be a whopping 576 pages, which is over 100 pages more than the fourth illustrated Potter book. Since both editions of the illustrated Goblet of Fire clocked in at the same number of pages, it stands to reason that this page count will likely apply to both versions of the illustrated Order of the Phoenix as well.
Considering that Order of the Phoenix is the longest book in the series, it’d be interesting to see how the tome balances the text and artwork. Unfortunately, Kay revealed last year in a blog post that the size of Order of the Phoenix will affect the number of illustrations that will appear:
It’s a whopping book, and the scale of it will probably limit the number of illustrations that can appear. The text, as I understand it, will be very slightly reduced in size, but there’s no way of avoiding the fact this will be a heavy book.
Apparently, there was a lot that Kay was prohibited from illustrating likely due to the size of the book or because of the darker material. However, in the end, Kay confirmed that he was more comfortable with the darker themes, which means that the illustrations we will get to see should be incredible.
Since the illustrated Goblet of Fire was released in 2019, this is the longest we’ve had to wait between installments. It seems that Kay experienced several difficulties during the production of this edition. He revealed in February 2020 that he had been experiencing depression for months and felt that despite working for so long, he had “practically nothing” ready for Order of the Phoenix. Unfortunately, the following month, the United Kingdom went into its first lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which likely contributed to Kay’s depression and further slowed production.
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Regardless, the book finally has a release date, and we only have to wait eight more months. Be sure to preorder your copy now.
Are you excited for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: The Illustrated Edition? Which scenes would you most want to see a Jim Kay illustration for? Let us know in the comments.