Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Trailer, Release Date, and Cast: The Harry Potter Prequel is Coming!

By Mark Rollins
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them coming November 18, 2016.  WB Pictures

Even though the Harry Potter franchise has ended with the last book and movie being released years ago, J.K. Rowling's wizarding world will continue with Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them.  This film is based on a book, but not like the original seven Harry Potter books that were made into eight movies.  This will apparently be the first of a new trilogy that will be a prequel to Harry Potter, and probably one that will be on the screen and not the page.  This is what we know about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Trailer, Release Date, and Cast.

CNN reports that this new movie, which is set in the same wizarding world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, takes place in America, specifically 1920s New York.  Oscar-award winning Eddie Redmayne will star as Newt Scamander, a magician who is searching for rare and unusual supernatural creatures.  The trailer seems to imply that these Fantastic Beasts mentioned in the title came to America via suitcase because...magic.  Apparently, these mystical creatures have been set free, so much of the story of the film will be tracking them down. 

There is also another plotline of the film which is about the American wizarding people dealing with prejudice with the No-Maj, or "no magic", with the New Salem Philanthropic Society, a group that is attempting to kill witches and wizards. 

Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them began as a book in 2001, who wrote it under the pseudonym of Newt Scamader.  It is actually meant to be an in-universe textbook that Harry Potter purchases for his first year at Hogwarts.  Rowling developed the book for the charity of Comic Relief, along with a companion book of Quidditch Through the Ages.  These books raised about £17 million, and include some handwritten notes from popular side character and friend of Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley. 

Perhaps Fantastic Beats and Where to Find Them will answer certain questions that fans have about the series about how secret magic is in the Harry Potter world.  At first it seems like it is something kept secret like in Men in Black, but later books and films reveal that magic goes way too public, and it could be known about in the real world, but it is ignored for certain reasons.  It is possible that the real world ignored it because they feared it, and perhaps Rowling will delve more into this issue only hinted at in her original seven-book series. 

Considering that the book was meant to be non-fiction within the universe of Harry Potter, it is interesting to see it be adapted into a film.  This film was written by J.K. Rowling in her screenwriting debut, and will be Directed by David Yates, director of the last four Harry Potter movies. 

In addition to Oscar-award winning Eddie Redmayne, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has no shortage of talent with Ezra Miller as Credence, Colin Farrell as Graves, Ron Perlman as Gnarlack, Jon Voight as Henry Shaw, Sr., and Samantha Morton as Mary Lou. 

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is planned to open on November 18, 2016, just in time for the Thanksgiving/Christmas movie season. 

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