With a flick of the wrist, Warner Bros. has pulled off its best summoning charm to conjure the very first trailer for upcoming Harry Potter prequel, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Teasing witchcraft, wizardry and those elusive monsters, today’s sizzle reel offers our first glimpse of David Yates’ offshoot in motion, including Eddie Redmayne in the star role as brilliant magizoologist Newt Scamander. Set during the roaring ’20s, Yates’ adventure takes place long before the birth of the Boy Who Lived, exploring the lore that Scamander created before his novel became a permanent fixture in the Hogwarts curriculum.
Working in tandem with author J.K. Rowling, Yates’ rendition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will see Redmayne’s wizard travel to the Big Apple to complete his defining work. Packing a suitcase packed to the brim with strange and wonderful creatures, Newt’s lifework could spell danger to the wizarding world should it fall into the wrong hands or, worse, if said monsters were to escape.
What makes the period setting so fascinating, though, is the way in which wizards and witches are treated, given their relationship with Muggles (or No-Majs in this time period) is fraught at best, and the danger of public exposure is even more great than it was during the Potter era. So, how exactly will Redmayne’s character fare in a wiz-phobic America?
How exactly Warner Bros. plans to spin out a newfound trilogy from a 42 page textbook is still up for question, and it evokes memories of the company’s decision to split The Hobbit in three, though we’ll be able to experience Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them‘s franchise credentials first hand when David Yates’ offshoot opens on November 18, 2016.
Gemma Chan, Carmen Ejogo and Jon Voight, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell and Hellboy himself, Ron Perlman join Redmayne for the journey of witchcraft and wizardry.
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.
