So you know how author J.K. Rowling completed the Harry Potter series and made sure that she brought with it a sense of closure by having the characters settle down and start families? Well, turns out that Warner Bros. remembered a pair of complimentary books Rowling wrote for Comedic Relief a few years back, so now they’re going to be expanding the Harry Potter universe with a movie based on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Via Deadline …
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be an original story and will mark Rowling’s screenwriting debut. It is planned as the first picture in a new film series. Set in the wizarding world, the story will feature magical creatures and characters, some of which will be familiar to devoted Harry Potter fans.
“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,” said Rowling. “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.”
For the record, I actually read this book as well as Quidditch Through The Ages, and both were fantastic little side-pieces that fans of the series should really consider reading. So needless to say, I am incredibly excited to see how this turns out. Rowling has already established that she can work well outside the realm of the Harry Potter universe and still turn out some incredible pieces of literature, so I would love to see how she does with screenwriting.