Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne will play Newt Scamander in the forthcoming Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The film, which was written by author JK Rowling in her screenwriting debut, takes place 70 years before the events portrayed in the Harry Potter series. Redmayne’s Scamander is an author who has been commissioned to create a reference guide to magical beasts, which inevitably becomes a mandatory textbook at Hogwarts.
“Eddie Redmayne has emerged as one of today’s most extraordinarily talented and acclaimed actors,” says Greg Silverman, President of Creative Development and Worldwide Production at Warner Bros. Pictures. “We are thrilled to welcome him into J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World.”
Warner Bros. is keeping it in the family, so to speak, as the upcoming production strings together a number of Potter alumni, including director David Yates, who helmed the last four Potter films; producer David Heyman; the aforementioned Rowling; screenwriter Steve Kloves; and executive producer Lionel Wilgram.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is slated for a worldwide release in 3D and IMAX on November 18, 2016.
