The first trailer for the upcoming film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been unveiled at long last.
The film is set in New York in the year 1926, roughly 70 years before the historic battle of Hogwarts in which he who shall not be named was finally defeated. This of course means that few, if any, of the characters that appeared in the original 8 films will appear in this new spin-off series. Obviously many of the characters in the wizarding world can live for hundreds of years, but it is unlikely that we will be seeing a huge amount of overlap. Coincidentally (or maybe not?), Tom Riddle was born in December of 1926, so we definitely won’t be seeing the return of the Dark Lord. Harry Potter obviously won’t be returning either.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the first installment in a new trilogy, and follows the early years of Newt Scamander. Scamander is the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the book used by Harry and his pals for their magical creatures studies. The movie will follow Scamander’s adventures on which his textbook is based, making this the first film which is not based on an actual novel. Although a version of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them textbook was published along with Quidditch Through the Ages to raise money for comic relief, the film will only be very loosely based on the source material. This means that this will be J.K. Rowlings screenwriting debut. Although Rowling did help with scripts for some of the other films, she is the sole writer on this project.
David Yates has returned to direct, which is perhaps the best news of all as he is hands down the best of all the people to direct the previous films. So good in fact, that he directed the last four, or half overall.
Eddie Redmayne takes the lead role, with Erza Miller, Colin Farrel, Jon Voight and Ron Perlman appearing also, among many others. It is due to be released in Ireland on the 18th of November 2016.