Levi Pinfold to Complete Bloomsbury’s “Harry Potter” Illustrated Edition Series Started by Jim Kay
Bloomsbury Children’s Books has officially announced that award-winning illustrator Levi Pinfold will be taking over from Jim Kay to complete the final two books in the Harry Potter illustrated edition series, with a release date also announced for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
For nearly a decade, Jim Kay bewitched readers with his stunning artwork, bringing the wizarding world to life through his incredible illustrations. In 2022, the announcement came that Kay would no longer be illustrating Bloomsbury’s illustrated Harry Potter series following the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which fellow artist Neil Packer helped him to illustrate. This left fans wondering who would be chosen to continue the series, which has become a collectible for many.
Now we have an answer: Award-winning artist Levi Pinfold will illustrate the final two books of the series: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We’ve seen Pinfold’s work before, in Bloomsbury’s 20th-anniversary Harry Potter Hogwarts House editions and The Harry Potter Wizarding Almanac.
Half-Blood Prince is set to be released in October 2026 by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom, and simultaneously in the United States by Scholastic.
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Pinfold says he couldn’t be more excited.
Being given the keys to Hogwarts and asked to explore feels exactly how it sounds… magical. These books are like old friends, and I feel incredibly lucky to attempt to share what I see in them. Visually speaking, ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ is like watching a firework display on the coldest, darkest of nights. That sense of wonder and awe is something I’d love to share with readers, my younger self, and my own kids.
Check out this glimpse we’ve been given of Pinfold’s illustrations in Half-Blood Prince.
A sneak peek of Levi Pinfold’s illustrations from “Half-Blood Prince” shows Harry and Dumbledore looking into the Pensieve.
Jim Kay himself has expressed his delight at the news of Pinfold taking over the series.
An art director first showed me Levi’s work many years back when I was visiting a publisher. When he pulled open the drawer and I saw this beautiful piece of painting, I was blown away. His work has since then become so important to me, as he’s everything that you could wish for in an illustrator. It’s a huge comfort to know he is working on the Illustrated Editions, for which I’m so grateful, but also as a fan of both Potter and Pinfold, I’m really excited!
The Harry Potter illustrated editions are set to end on a magical note – if the early glimpse of Pinfold’s work is anything to go by, we’re in for something truly spellbinding. But with the release of Half-Blood Prince not for another year and a half, we’ll be sure to keep you updated with preorder information and further details when they are released.
