Sometimes there is good news out of Hollywood. This is such an occasion. EOnline.com is reporting that Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson have all signed on to reprise their roles of Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger for the last two movies of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the yet-to-be-published Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which marks a definitive end to the series.

Rumors abound that Deathly Hallows could feature the death of Harry himself, though that is entirely uncertain at this writing. While it would make the best literary resolution, Rowling has a generation of readers to consider and while she may give into the temptation to off Harry in much the same way Arthur Conan Doyle attempted to off Sherlock Holmes, it may all be part of the hype machine to build anticipation for the final book. Will Harry live or die? What better marketing gimmick could there be?

Of course, the media is sure to blow the whistle on how the series ends at first opportunity, and there is the movie franchise to consider; if the ending is revealed a couple years before the movie is released, and it proves unpopular, it could devastate box office receipts for the final films.

Personally, I’d rather not know what happens until I either read the book or walk into the theatre; but that’s not bloody likely. Trust Hollywood and the media to blow a good thing. But at least we know there won’t be any 11th-hour recasting of the principle leads in the film. At this point, if the cast were redone, combined with the ending of Deathly Hallows likely being revealed within a couple hours of the book’s July 2007 release, that would create the perfect storm to kill of the series.

With the way the page counts are increasing in each book released, it’s a good thing the series is ending at seven books, or future releases would become so weighty it would take a load of computer memory just to store it. However, whatever happens to Harry, Hermione and Ronald, at least it’ll happen to the cast audiences around the world have grown so fond of.