‘Harry Potter’ Spinoff ‘Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them’ Movie To Be Written By J.K. Rowling

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them stands to be the Harry Potter spinoff that fans of the wizarding world series have been waiting for since J.K. Rowling wrote her last book following the boy wizard and the movie franchise wrapped up in 2011.

Rowling plans to make her screenwriting debut with the film, which will be based on the Hogwarts textbook that's required for first-year students – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find – and the book’s author Newt Scamander. Rowling’s deal with Warner Bros. is for a series that will include an undetermined number of installments.

Rowling and Warner Bros. announced the project on Thursday. The famed author wrote on her Facebook page: "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,” Rowling continued. “But Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.”

Though Newt Scamander isn’t the most familiar name to Potterheads, he did hold a special place for Rowling. As she noted in her release, in the Appendix to the final Harry Potter book she married Newt’s grandson Rolf to Luna Lovegood, a favorite character of the author and many readers alike.

– Chelsea Regan

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