J.K. Rowling Is Possibly Planning a Pottermore Brand and/or a ‘Harry Potter’ Encyclopedia (Update!)

When we theorized yesterday about what J.K. Rowling‘s Pottermore website and June 23 announcement could be, commenter Carolynn suggested two very convincing possibilities: What sounds like a brand encompassing books, playthings, games, and even an online forum; and the long-awaited Harry Potter encyclopedia. Let’s tackle these in order.

Carolynn led us over to Trademarkia, to the discovery that Warner Bros. has trademarked the term Pottermore, with intent for using it for advertising and communications but also specifically Christmas decorations, photos, bookbinding, and even scientific tools. Here’s the quote that Carolynn found on Facebook, that most interests us:

Providing multiple-user access to a global computer information network; providing on-line chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among users in the field of general interest; providing on-line communications links which transfer the web site user to other local and global web pages; providing on-line facilities for real-time interaction with other computer users concerning topics of general interest.

I’ve heard rumors that Pottermore would include an online community where fans can talk about the series and Rowling herself might even share some in-world content like short stories. Speaking of new bits of canon, the other theory is that Rowling is finally debuting the Harry Potter encyclopedia that she’s been working on for years.

According to the Potter wiki, Rowling has always staked her claim on this project, even though she needed some time after the last book came out in 2007 to simply get over the exhaustive process of writing all seven books. In 2008, she took legal action against fans who had been compiling their own, unofficial encyclopedia, though the site doesn’t say which fan project this was.

There seemed to have been an encyclopedia housed at MuggleNet that’s since been taken down, but there’s also the Harry Potter Lexicon, which includes an atlas of the wizarding world, a potions guide, and and even a section on Muggle studies. It seems to be more of an in-world piece of fan literature, while Rowling’s is supposed to exist for the fans, outside of the world of the books. The encyclopedia will allegedly include steps for making a Horcrux, the process by which Peter Pettigrew transferred Voldemort into a new body, and other explanations.

So there you have it: Two more theories to chew on until early morning of the 23rd.

Update: We found these photos, recently added to the Pottermore Facebook page, that seem to corroborate some of what we were thinking. Like this one, of a library:

Although these photos are dated 2010 — another shot of the library has a sign that says Next Fiction Reading 20 June 2010 — this is the first time that they’ve been linked to the Pottermore page.

In the upper left-hand corner, you can see the Pottermore logo blurred out. There’s also a toolbar leading to other sections of the site: Home; Encyclopedia; Pottercast; Community (where this library is based); Store. The bottom of the page offers Tutorials — on using the site, or writing? — along with a bonafide Writing Competition. And beneath that is a link for “Child Safety Information,” implying that the site’s creators intend for Pottermore to be used as some sort of social network, but that younger, less Internet-savvy readers need to protect themselves.