Tell me a story

Are you ready for a new set of Harry Potter movies? Well that’s too bad because you’re not going to be getting any (sorry). However, you will be getting a new series of films set in the same universe. Author J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros are launching a whole new series which will be based on the Hogwarts text book, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, which appears on a reading list in the first Potter book, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone, and which Rowling actually wrote in 2001 as a companion piece to the Harry Potter books.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them is sold as Harry Potter’s actual copy of the book and contains notes and sketches by Harry, Ron and Hermione. “Written” by Newt Scamander, it details the history of magizoology, the study of magical creatures, and features 75 magical species from all around the world. The movie will center around Newt.

According to Rowling, “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, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.”

Since Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them is merely a textbook, the story in the film will likely be completely new. Having read each of the Harry Potter books before seeing their movie counterparts, it’ll be odd to watch a Potter-esque movie without already knowing/loving the characters and the story. However, that could actually end up helping the movie, as I found that the longer the series went on the less I enjoyed the movies because they just couldn’t match the books.

What’ll also help the movie is that Rowling is penning the script herself, which gives the films the best possible chance of being good. I couldn’t imagine any other writer handling the immense world that Rowling has created. It’ll be the first time she’s ever written a screenplay, but I have an incredible amount of faith in her abilities. She’s definitely earned it. Here’s hoping the producers and studios just get out of her way and stay as true to her script as possible.

Source: Warner Bros, J.K. Rowling Team For New ‘Harry Potter’-Inspired Film Series