If Warner Bros. drew criticism for spinning out a trilogy from J.R.R. Tolkien’s children’s novel The Hobbit, then the studio is really going one step further in adapting J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
At only 120 pages in length, the author’s magical offshoot doesn’t exactly scream franchise credentials, but that’s exactly what Warner is planning to do across the next five years or so, with plans in place to release three movies based on Newt Scamander’s journey.
Responding to rumors regarding the Cursed Child play – reports surfaced linking the stage show with a film adaptation – Rowling took to Twitter to pour could water over the speculation. Before confirming that, yes, Fantastic Beasts will be a story told across three movies.
You heard wrong, I’m afraid. #CursedChild is a play. #FantasticBeasts will be 3 movies, though! https://t.co/7tvw4rolcR
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) February 29, 2016
Set in New York during the Roaring ’20s, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them follows Scamander (Redmayne) on his journey to the States with a briefcase of magical oddities in tow. How exactly Warner Bros. plans to nuture this period drama into a trilogy remains to be seen, but for now, the core cast is rounded out by Gemma Chan, Carmen Ejogo, Jon Voight, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell and Ron Perlman.
Eddie Redmayne toplines the first installment in Warner’s newfound trilogy when Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens on November 18.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
