Harry Potter Will Help Kids Learn to Code with U.K. Startup Kano

Harry Potter never learned computer code, but a London-based startup plans to help Muggle children do so with the famous wizard’s help, according to Bloomberg. Aspiring young developers will be able to use a new coding kit developed by Kano, which includes a physical magic wand that responds to movement in the hand, to learn how to recreate some of the magic spells seen in the popular movies.

When it’s released in October through a partnership with Warner Bros., Kano’s Harry Potter coding kit will cost $99 and introduce children to programming languages such as JavaScript, which has real-world uses in modern web design and software development. Kano, founded in 2013,  makes do-it-yourself computer-building kits for kids, or anyone,  and has its own online platform where people can create games.

Alex Klein, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kano, said the magic wand kit was conceived after executives at Walmart, which sells the startup’s products in the U.S., were intrigued by the company’s movement sensor products. “Our Walmart associates suggested we show it to Warner Brothers, as the in-air interaction had the feeling of magic, and they knew Harry Potter was growing,“ Klein said via email.

During a visit to the entertainment company’s Los Angeles studio in 2017, Klein said he suggested there was “a connection between our world, where a small class of secretive ‘wizards’ command the realms of computing, code, and machine learning, and the rest of us are stuck as befuddled Muggles.“