Yes, A ‘Harry Potter’ Prequel Is Coming And It Sounds Amazing

“Harry Potter” fans don’t have to give up the literary backbone of their childhoods just yet. In November 2016, J.K. Rowling’s first screenplay and encyclopedia “beastanica” from 2001 is coming to the theaters as “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” according to Entertainment Weekly.

The film is supposed to be a prequel to the world of wizardy presented in “Harry Potter.” It’s set in the 1920s in New York City and follows Newt Scamander, a “magizoologist” who is chasing escaped magical creatures around the city.

Scamander works with the Magical Congress of the United States of America (which is like the U.S. version of the Ministry of Magic) and it’s housed in the Woolworth Building in downtown Manhattan, according to TIME.

But in this magical story, No Majs, the U.S. version of Muggles, are less aware of the magic hidden in their world, so public exposure poses more of a threat, says TIME. So, to help protect the magical community in the U.S., Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne from “The Theory of Everything,” begins a journey to capture the escaped beasts. Of course it’s not that simple though, and the plot will be filled with new spells and freaky magical villains, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Who is Scamander, exactly? Well, he is the fictional author behind the book “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,” the textbook that Potter buys in Diagon Alley at the beginning of the Potter series, writes CNN.

Not many details are publicly known about him, but the “About the Author” part of the book says that he was born in 1987, and his mother was “an enthusiastic breeder of fancy Hippogrifs,” which encouraged his interests in magical creatures, states TIME.

Scamander attended Hogwarts as a Hufflepuff and then went on to work for the Ministry of Magic in the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. You know, normal jobs like that.

Scamander’s story is entirely separate from Potter’s, though his grandson, Rolf Scamander, later goes on to marry Luna Lovegood, one of Potter’s friends, according to TIME.

If you’d like to read the book before the movie comes out, you can purchase it on Amazon and other bookstores that a No Maj might frequent. CNN reports that the film will come to theaters on Nov. 18, 2016. Check out more amazing photos from Entertainment Weekly’s sneak peek below.

https://twitter.com/_Snape_/status/661690518125064192

Photo by Dave Catchpole

Photo by Thalita Carvalho ϟ

Photo by Colin ZHU