The programme will launch in autumn 2026 with Our Strange Duet by Erin A Craig, a YA reimagining of the story that will “bring a new voice to Christine Daaé, a central part of the iconic Phantom canon”. Daaé is the beautiful soprano who becomes the obsession of a mysterious and disfigured musical genius living in the subterranean labyrinth beneath the Paris Opera House.
Our Strange Duet is described as “a Christine-forward retelling that gives new insight to Christine’s experience navigating the Paris Opera House. It will serve as the principal and tentpole foray into the expansion of this beloved franchise”.
The novel will be published in the US by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, and edited by Wendy Loggia, vice-president and publisher of Delacorte Press. It will be published simultaneously in the UK with PRH Children’s.
Craig, author of House of Salt and Sorrows and House of Roots and Ruin (Rock the Boat), said: “I’m over the moon to announce that I’ve teamed up with LW Entertainment and Delacorte Press to bring you Our Strange Duet, a Phantom of the Opera novel celebrating the 40-year milestone anniversary for the world’s most iconic and sweepingly romantic musical. It’s been the honour of a lifetime to explore the ‘strange affair of The Phantom of the Opera, a mystery never fully explained’ through the eyes of Broadway’s most beloved Gothic heroine.”
The programme, which will span books for all ages, will feature additional titles, including three Little Golden Books and a new coffee-table book from Crown/Ten Speed Press and by Ebury Press in the UK in autumn 2026.
