Warner Bros. and director David Yates are still apparating the stars of next year’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, with Variety reporting today that Dig actress Alison Sudol has joined Eddie Redmayne and Katherine Waterston in the Harry Potter spinoff.
Sudol, who had apparently been Yates’ pick for some time, will take on the role of Queenie, the younger sister of Tina (Waterston), who runs into magizoologist Newt Scamander (Redmayne) when he stops in New York City on his travels to find and document magical creatures. After seeing Sudol, who also has a singing career as A Fine Frenzy, during her first test, the director declined to meet with other actresses.
Variety also reports that Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) is in talks for a role, and the studio has also met with Josh Gad and John Krasinski for the role of Jacob, one of Scamander’s rivals.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will launch a new trilogy set in the world of Harry Potter, though fans of that series shouldn’t expect the Boy Wizard to be making any appearances – the film is set approximately 70 years before Harry ever got his scar and on a different continent. Still, JK Rowling made her screenwriting debut on the pic, so the tone will hopefully carry over (and draw in the same massive audiences that made the Harry Potter franchise a box office juggernaut).
In the overall mythology of the franchise, the connection is that Scamander will eventually author a textbook used by Hogwarts students. Rowling previously wrote a tie-in version of said textbook as a charity gig related to Comic Relief, and WB execs were quick to sense another series opportunity once they cracked it open.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will open November 18, 2016.
