JK ROWLING, creator of the phenomenally successful Harry Potter series, has hinted that the teenage wizard is heading for an untimely death.

The author, whose fourth episode, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, was released this month to near hysteria, said the popular character could meet the grim fate in his seventh and final adventure.

In a rare public interview for BBC radio, Rowling also mused on what she would write once the Potter epic was completed and discussed her often fraught experiences with the media.

Harry Potter's legions of young fans will have been heartbroken to hear the fate that awaits their hero at the end of the seventh book.

Despite making his author one of the richest women in Britain, the young magician will be bumped off to round off the phenomenally successful series.

However fans of Rowling's imaginative works can be sure the manner in which he meets his death will not be straighforward.

Interviewed on Radio 1's "God For a Day" slot on Simon Mayo's show, she spilled the beans about her character's impending death before trying to cover up the revelation.

She said: "I always planned seven [Potter books], I never said I would do another one, but at the moment there will be just the seven. I've got it planned, and Harry dies obviously."

Perhaps to the relief of Potter followers, she quickly added: "But that's just a joke - or is it?" Asked what she would do after her final Potter novel was completed, she replied: "It will be a lot quieter, [and that] does appeal. Maybe it will be not that radical a change - I will be writing ."

Rowling also scotched recent rumours that she had lost confidence in the direction in which the Warner Bros. film of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is going. In recent weeks it appeared that a young American actor was in the running for the coveted role of Harry Potter.

Rowling is keen to have a British actor for the key role but the director, Chris Columbus, favours a US actor.