The wizarding world of Harry Potter is coming back to the big screen through a new spin-off movie written by J.K. Rowling herself.
The big HP won't be a character in the film, and none of the main, and possibly even minor, characters from the Potter films will be in this new film. Warner Bros. said that "some familiar characters and creatures could turn up once again."
The movie will be set 70 years before the events of Harry Potter and in New York, and will follow the adventures of Newt Scamander.
For big fans, Scamander's name should be familiar, he was the author of a textbook called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which Harry was required to buy. The textbook's title is also serving as the name for the upcoming movie as well.
This is planned to be the first movie in a new series of films set in this world.
"I always said that I would only revisit the wizarding world if I had an idea that I was really excited about," Rowling said in a statement, "and this is it."
This will be Rowling's first time writing directly for a movie, the other Potter films were adapted from her books.
All my big Harry Potter fan-friends are, of course, incredibly excited for this. And for some reason, I am too. I was a pretty big fan of the Harry Potter books, but wouldn't call myself a huge lover of the series, though my memory of them has faded quite a bit since elementary school. However, I'm not the biggest fan of the movies. So really, I shouldn't be excited about this.
But for some reason I am. My biggest complaint about the Harry Potter world was that it focused mainly on the schooling aspect of the wizarding world, arguably the least interesting part of any world. There were hints at a much grander, more epic, and complicated world outside of the school, and the best parts of the series, in my humble opinion, where when the events taking place had nothing to do with the school. This film has the potential to take the interesting wizard world created by Rowling, and show us the exciting parts. Plus, there's something wonderfully awesome about this world in New York in the 20's. I keep picturing an awesome Harry Potter/Gatsby crossover, and that just sounds so wonderful.
There's just so much whimsical awesomeness that could come from this. 1920s. New York. Magic. Even the name is whimsical. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. My favorite part of Rowling's writing is the whimsical (I have to keep reusing that word since I can't think of a better describing word for it) nature of things, and this title captures it perfectly. I freaking love this title. It's actually sort of weird how much I like it.
I can picture several fantastic movie posters for a movie with that name and the 1920s style.
But there is a lot that could go wrong with this. We don't know for a fact that Rowling will be any good as a screenwriter, but her recent writing has apparently proven that she's not just a seven-hit-wonder. Plus spin-offs can be hard to pull off, though this one seems like it might be far enough removed to stand well on its own. Let's just hope they don't try to pull off a ton of heavy handed references back to Harry Potter, because 1. that would suck, and 2. I wouldn't get most of them.
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