Eddie Redmayne Talks Scale And Scope Of Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

Now that David Yates’ Harry Potter offshoot Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been in active production since August, excitement is slowly beginning to build in anticipation of Warner Bros.’ magical 2016 release.

Indeed, that anticipation can be traced back to the stellar cast that the studio has assembled for the spinoff, including the likes of Gemma Chan, Selma star Carmen Ejogo and Jon Voight, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell and Ron Perlman. Leading the charge as the instrumental, wholly brilliant Newt Scamander is Eddie Redmayne.

Upon doing the rounds for his intimate drama The Danish Girl, the Oscar-winner recently chatted with ComingSoon regarding his role in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and his experience of meeting the by-now legendary J.K. Rowling.

“When I was prepping, I met J.K. Rowling and what’s so amazing is that her imagination is so full and thorough–it’s so encyclopedic of her world–we had an hour together and I sort of asked her about 800 questions so that was a lot of my wonderful research.”

Taking place a full 70 years before the birth of the Boy Who Lived, it’s understood that Rowling will co-write the film’s screenplay alongside Yates. As for Redmayne’s character, he’s a magizoologist, one who uproots and travels to the Big Apple in search of, well, Fantastic Beasts. Speaking of his newfound working relationship with Yates, here’s what the Theory of Everything star had to share:

“He’s wonderful,” Redmayne said. “Even though there’s a scale to these films that could be intimidating, he has such a kindness but an absolutely brilliant that it feels very intimate, and he’s got such a wonderful, eclectic cast. Hopefully, it will be good.”

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will send Redmayne out an all-new wizarding adventure come November 18, 2016.