The genius behind the new cover is Nicholas Filbert, an Indonesian illustrator who previously created the local cover for Ryan Graudin’s The Walled City book, and released a coloring book titled Fantasia.

The upcoming covers will feature Harry Potter characters and the fantastic beasts of the magical world, all drawn in the illustrator’s signature detailed painting style. “For these covers, my goal was to push one of the most interesting aspects of the Harry Potter world, which is the Fantastic Beasts,” Nicholas said in a Facebook post.

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Diniarty "Dini" Pandia, senior fiction editor of Gramedia Pustaka Utama publisher who is responsible for the Indonesian edition of Harry Potter, said that the decision was made when the publisher decided to reprint the book by J.K. Rowling, which has long been out of stock but is still high in demand. “I thought there had to be something else to get more hype [for these books]. Then, an idea to use the work of a local illustrator came to mind,” Dini told The Jakarta Post. 

She stated that the agent from Rowling’s side had initially offered to simply purchase one of the existing covers. “But, that makes me more eager to create an Indonesian cover. Who knows, maybe it could go international later?” Dini said

The new cover version is scheduled to be released gradually, with the first batch containing first and second volume of the series to be released in the Jabodetabek area on March 13 or 20. The book will later be distributed in other parts of Indonesia.

The book's final volume is slated for June 1, or 25 days before the 20^th anniversary of the first Harry Potter release in the United Kingdom.

The first and second volumes featuring the new cover will be sold at Rp 128,000 (US$9.6) and Rp 138,000, respectively. (kes)