Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is an upcoming British fantasy action drama film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling (in her screenwriting debut), based on Rowling's book of the same name. It stars Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Colin Farrell, Carmen Ejogo, Samantha Morton, Ezra Miller, Ron Perlman and Jon Voight.
A spin-off of the Harry Potter film series, the film will be the first installment of a series of five films. It is intended to be the ninth film instalment (and the tenth overall instalment, including the two-part stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World, a new entertainment brand and cinematic universe founded by Rowling and acquired by Warner Bros., showcasing different genres, and depicting different cultures, time periods, political conflicts, and wars in various Wizarding societies around the globe. Principal photography commenced on 17 August 2015, at Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is scheduled to be released worldwide on 18 November 2016 in the 3D, IMAX 4K Laser and other large format theatres.
Synopsis:
There are growing dangers in the wizarding world of 1926 New York. Something mysterious is leaving a path of destruction in the streets, threatening to expose the wizarding community to the Second Salemers, a fanatical faction of No-Majs (American for Muggles) bent on eradicating them. And the powerful, dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, after wreaking havoc in Europe, has slipped away… and is now nowhere to be found.
Unaware of the rising tensions, Newt Scamander arrives in the city nearing the end of a global excursion to research and rescue magical creatures, some of which are safeguarded in the hidden pocket-dimensions of his deceptively nondescript leather case. But potential disaster strikes when unsuspecting No-Maj Jacob Kowalski inadvertently lets some of Newt's beasts loose in a city already on edge—a serious breach of the Statute of Secrecy that former Auror Tina Goldstein jumps on, seeing her chance to regain her post. However, things take an ominous turn when Percival Graves, the enigmatic Director of Magical Security at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), casts his suspicions on both Newt… and Tina.
Now allied, Newt and Tina, together with Tina's sister, Queenie, and their new No-Maj friend, Jacob, form a band of unlikely heroes, who must recover Newt's missing beasts before they come to harm. But the stakes are higher than these four outsiders—now branded fugitives—ever imagined, as their mission puts them on a collision course with dark forces that could push the Wizarding and No-Maj worlds to the brink of war.
