Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus. Familiar words for any Harry Potter aficionado, as it’s the slogan that adorns the Hogwarts crest and, subsequently, all of the badges glimpsed in the literary prints of J.K. Rowling’s beloved series of witchcraft and wizardry. As any Potterhead will rush to tell you, the motto is Latin for ‘Never Tickle/Wake a Sleeping Dragon.’ Sound advice, of course, and it’s a spirit that Warner Bros. channels wholeheartedly in the very first poster for David Yates’ upcoming spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
With production well underway in London, the studio is gearing up to welcome back the dormant brand in a major way next year, as Yates’ spinoff has been pegged for a release in the fall. Bringing together quite the ensemble cast, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them winds the clock back a full 70 years before Harry’s defining trip to Hogwarts to focus on one Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), an eccentric, wholly brilliant magizoologist who uproots and plots course for the Big Apple all in the hope of finding those elusive titular monsters.
In terms of today’s teasing poster, there’s really not an awful lot to go on aside from the stylized ‘S’. Whereas the Harry Potter logos emphasized that all-important scar adorning Harry’s forehead, Warner is clearly drawing attention to the film’s beastly nature, all the while downplaying the ‘and where to find them’ as more of a suffix than anything else. It’s quite the mouthful, after all.
Alongside Redmayne for the magical outing are Gemma Chan, Selma star Carmen Ejogo and Jon Voight, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell and Ron Perlman.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in theaters on November 18, 2016, with two sequels tentatively pegged for 2018 and 2020. Let’s just get the first one out and see if it can really channel the Harry Potter magic, shall we?
Published: Nov 3, 2015 04:18 pm