Riley Brennan
Features and A&E Editor
2016 has been a good year for fans of the beloved Harry Potter series. Not only did the author, J.K. Rowling, release a screenplay based off of the books (featuring Harry Potter as an adult) this summer, but now a movie she wrote, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is set to hit theaters Nov. 18.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was originally a book. Written by Rowling in 2001, it took the form of a “textbook” which was intended to look like something Hogwarts students, specifically characters from the Harry Potter series, would have studied. Despite the overlap of time which is created by the book version of Fantastic Beasts, and Rowling intending it to serve as something Harry would have studied from at school (the Harry Potter series is speculated to be in set in the 1990’s, meaning Harry was in school during that time.), the movie version is set in 1926, around 70 years prior, with no apparent connection to Harry.
The movie features the wizarding world before Harry Potter, and introduces a new character: Newt Scamander. Newt has recently been traveling the world, documenting magical creatures, and the movie follows him around during his stop in New York City and all the trouble he gets himself into. The issues start when he encounters American “muggles” (non-magical beings), who have been coined as “No-Majs”(the American term for non-magical beings).
Fantastic Beasts is the first movie to come from a five-film franchise for which Rowling will write all five screenplays.
