Eddie Redmayne, best known for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Nearly Everything, will play Newt Scamander in the upcoming film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
[dropcap size=small]E[/dropcap]arlier last week, Warner Bros. Pictures confirmed that Eddie Redmayne will be playing the lead role of Newt Scamander, “the Wizarding World’s preeminent magizoologist”. Newt Scamander is the fictitious author of the book where the film will be based in J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and the film’s script is being written by J.K. Rowling herself, making the movie her first screenwriting debut.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was first mentioned in the Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The movie will take place seventy years prior to the events which transpired in Harry Potter. The movie follows Newt, a magizoologist, as he travels the world discovering magical beasts and documenting his findings in the Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The idea of adapting Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a movie was originally Warner Bros. idea. However, J.K. Rowling decided that she would write the screenplay by herself because she feels “very protective” of her fictional universe. She has gone on record saying that the film is neither a prequel or a sequel to the Harry Potter series.
Greg Silverman, the creative development president, said in a statement:
“Eddie Redmayne has emerged as one of today’s most extraordinarily talented and acclaimed actors. We are thrilled to welcome him into J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, where we know he will deliver a remarkable performance as Newt Scamander, the central character in ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is expected to be the first movie in a trilogy. The movie will be released on November 19th, 2016 and will be directed by David Yates, who directed four Harry Potter films.
