For all of the trailblazing success of J.K. Rowling’s mainline Harry Potter franchise, the series was largely self-contained, allowing fans to indulge in the rich lore of Hogwarts, its houses and most important of all, the wizards populating its opulent halls.
But with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Rowling switches gear to take the magical action Stateside, and that’s a creative jump that director David Yates (The Legend of Tarzan) will hope to emulate with his upcoming adaptation.
To get fans up to speed with the American version of Hogwarts – known as Ilvermorny – the official Pottermore Twitter has rolled out a new featurette that charts the school’s storied history. Of course, it doesn’t feature any footage from Fantastic Beasts itself but is still a stylish info dump about Rowling’s American world of witchcraft and wizardry.
Ready to discover #Ilvermorny for the first time? Delve into the rich history of the North American school…https://t.co/UBFdY5RMVD
— Pottermore (@pottermore) June 28, 2016
With Eddie Redmayne in the lead role of Newt Scamander, Fantastic Beasts also features Gemma Chan, Carmen Ejogo, Jon Voight, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell and Ron Perlman.
Warner Bros. is aligning Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as a new franchise-starter, and it’ll be fascinating to see how David Yates’ offshoot fares with Potterheads and newcomers alike when it debuts 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.
