What To Expect From 'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them'
We have to admit, when J.K. Rowling ended the Harry Potter series with no room to ever revive the characters, we were pretty devastated. An entire lifetime of no more muggles and no more magic sounded too depressing to bear, so news that Rowling’s, sorry, Newt Scamander's 2001 book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set to be made into a trilogy of films may just be the best thing we’ve ever heard.
But what is Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and will it quench our thirst for Potter?
Well firstly, the action in the upcoming trilogy will take place 70 years before Harry Potter’s story begins. The original book was initially written to be one of the textbooks that Harry and Co. are instructed to buy for their first year at Hogwarts (although they never actually study any magical creatures in their first years, perhaps it was just for reference?). It was written by Newt Scamander (another of Rowling’s aliases), who will be the main character in the new films.
Newt Scamander (a Hufflepuff alumni) is a magizoologist (one who studies the science of Magizoology, obviously) who specialises in magical creatures. The location of the films will be New York City, as opposed to the Harry Potter franchise, which took place mainly in London, England and Scotland (which is where Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them confirms that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is located, it's worth buying the book just for these little nuggets of information).
The 2001 ‘textbook’ contained the history of Magizoology, as well as cataloguing 75 magical creatures that can be found around the globe. Scamander notes that he compiled findings from years of traveling across five continents. He chose to study Magizoology because of his interest in magical animals and because his mother was a passionate Hippogriff breeder (who isn't these days?).
Harry Potter was born in 1980 so we can assume that the action of the trilogy, which Rowling will be writing, will take place in around 1920. Scamander was born in 1897 and the first copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them was commissioned in 1918 (although not published until 1927) so it seems as though the main character will be around 23 years old and in the process of collecting information for his book. We wonder what sort of magical creatures he’ll be chasing down in New York? If the Harry Potter series taught us anything it’s that magic dwells in even the biggest of muggle cities, we just don’t know about it, so we’re sure there will be some extraordinary goings on in the Big Apple. It will also be interesting to see how Rowling develops the magical underworld in New York, as she did in London with Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. We’re delighted that Rowling is working on a Potter spin-off, it may be the best news we’ve had since hearing that Harry Potter World in Universal Studios Orlando is expanding.
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