Harry Potter fans have been waiting for this moment for a long time. Since the last Harry Potter book came out and the eighth movie was released, fans have been hoping that a return to the world of witchcraft and wizardry was on the cards. J. K. Rowling answered their prayers and now it’s only a matter of months before Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them arrives in cinemas.
There’s a bit of a twist though, the film doesn’t have anything to do with Harry Potter. Instead, Rowling is going back in time and hopping across the pond, taking things Stateside, reports Squareeyed.tv.
It is then that we welcome Newt Scamander to the franchise and doesn’t he look dashing in the new teaser poster? We join the proud Hufflepuff on his journey to pioneer the field of magizoology (now that sounds like one pretty interesting career).
Eddie Redmayne plays Scamander who arrives in the USA in the midst of the Roaring Twenties to visit the Magical Congress. It all looked to be going so well until his mysterious briefcase unleashes a plethora of magical beasts on America. Whoops.
The woman behind the magic, none other than the brilliant J. K. Rowling herself, has dropped a few more teasers about what we should expect.
Rowling commented on the nature of her characters are how her “heroes are always people who feel themselves to be set apart, stigmatised or othered”. She also recognised that these characteristics are what can be found at the very core of her writing, “that’s at the heart of most of what I write, and it’s certainly at the heart of this movie.”
Newt establishes himself as an outsider from the outset as an Englishman in the middle of New York. He literally finds himself pulled into a society that he doesn’t fully understand and isn’t sure if he ever really will. We also find out some pretty interesting facts about the 1920s American wizarding society including the issue that Wizards couldn’t marry Muggles back then. Can you imagine if that had still stood in Harry Potter?! What about Hermione – both of her parents are Muggles!
When asked about the American wizarding society by Tina Goldstein (played by Katherine Waterston) Newt retorts that they have, ‘rather backwards laws about relations with non-magic people.’ Let’s just say that didn’t exactly get him off to the best start!
Thanks to ‘A History of Magic in North America’, we are granted a bit of an explanation when it comes to their ideas. Is it any wonder Tina is on edge given that anti-magic groups such as the Second Salemers are knocking around just biding their time.
Sounds like Newt and his new friends and enemies alike will have plenty to contend with.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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