Harry Potter fans, perk up! J.K. Rowling is back with another film in mind. Now before you freak out too hard, this new film will not star The Boy Who Lived but instead it will focus on Newt Scamander, the fictitious author of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. This book was first mentioned in the first Potter novel The Sorcerer’s Stone and Rowling would later adapt it into a real book in 2001. Adapting Fantastic Beasts marks Rowling’s screening debut, and though plot details are under wraps, a press release makes it known that the original story will take place in the wizarding world featured in the Potter books and movies but it unfolds 70 years before Harry is introduced. Rowling release the following statement:
It all started when Warner Bros. came to me with the suggestion of turning ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ into a film. I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of ‘Fantastic Beasts,’ realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood.
As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros.
Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.
To learn more about Scamander, a famed Magizoologist and once Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, check out his Wiki page. Buy a copy of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them at Amazon today to prepare for the upcoming film. The plan is for this to be the first picture in a new film series.