Bad news, Potter fans:

You won’t get to see the new film until next year.

The highly anticipated Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was originally slated for a Nov. 21, 2008 release, but has been bumped back to next summer.

“Our reasons for shifting Half-Blood Prince to summer are twofold,” said Warner Bros. president Alan Horn yesterday. “We know the summer season is an ideal window for a family tent pole release, as proven by the success of our last Harry Potter film, which is the second-highest grossing film in the franchise, behind only the first installment.

“Like every other studio, we are still feeling the repercussions of the writers’ strike, which impacted the readiness of scripts for other films–changing the competitive landscape for 2009 and offering new windows of opportunity that we wanted to take advantage of.”

Jeff Robinov, president of the Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group had some good news, though. The studio is considering releases in 2010 and 2011 for the two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The sixth Potter film, which is set for a July 17, 2009 release, will feature Hero Fiennes-Tiffin, Ralph Fiennes’ nephew, as a young Tom Riddle.






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