We knew it was coming, we just didn’t know when.
Today, Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling (via her official Facebook page) announced that the Harry Potter movie franchise would continue, even though the author had already wrapped up The Boy Who Lived’s story after seven epic novels and eight feature films. The new film will be made with the author’s blessing. In fact, she’s writing the screenplay herself, based on an ancillary book she published in 2001 called Fantastic Beasts and How to Find Them, that was about fantastic beasts, and where to find them in the so-called Wizarding World of Harry Potter.
Quoth the Rowling: “It all started when Warner Bros. came to me with the suggestion of turning ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ into a film. I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of ‘Fantastic Beasts’, realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt. As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood.”
J.K. Rowling also had a few clarifications to make about the film, its story, and its place within the world of the Harry Potter franchise: “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.”
Read J.K. Rowling’s complete statement about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will mark J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut, although she had a very close hand in adapting the previous Harry Potter movies, most of which were produced before the book series was completed and, as such, needed careful guidance to avoid cutting characters and subplots that would prove crucial to the final chapters. (And even then, they still screwed up once in a while.)
No official word yet on when Warner Bros. expects to go into production, how far into the screenwriting process J.K. Rowling already is, and of course casting (which will doubtless be the subject of endless rumormongering in the months and/or years to come) hasn’t even begun yet. But fans of J.K. Rowling and her works can look forward to a BBC mini-series adaptation of her best-selling first post-Harry Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy, which goes into production in 2014.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
