Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: plot, pictures, and more!

After months of silence, more details about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them have finally been revealed. Avid fans of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter universe may rejoice as some plot information on the upcoming film, as well as photos and descriptions of the cast in costume and in action, have finally been posted online.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is based on one of the textbooks Harry Potter and his friends had to study during their years in Hogwarts. The film will cover the adventures of the textbook’s writer, Newt Scamander, as he navigates the magical world in 1920s New York City. The plot for the film has been a carefully guarded secret from the moment it was announced, but we finally have a clearer idea of what the movie will be covering, even without a lot of spoilers.

According to an article on Entertainment Weekly, the film will focus on the arrival of magizoologist Newt Scamander in New York while carrying his case, one of those “bigger on the inside” types that contains an extensive collection of rare and endangered magical creatures Newt has procured from his many travels. He discovers that the American wizarding community have gone into hiding, afraid of exposure to the world of the “No-Maj” (apparently, the American version of “Muggle”, another tidbit recently revealed). As Scamander makes his way through this wizard-phobic society, a few of his creatures manage to escape from his case, making an already complicated situation even trickier.

Entertainment Weekly also revealed character descriptions for the main cast of the film:

Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) – “An eccentric globe-hopping English “magizoologist” wizard who’s far more comfortable around beasts and creatures than he is around other people. Comes to New York on a quest with his case full of magical habitats containing rare and endangered species.”

Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein (Katherine Waterston) – “An ambitious worker at the Magical Congress of the United States of America (aka MACUSA, the U.S. version of the Ministry of Magic) who meets Newt. Tina is relegated to an office well below her abilities after she stood up for the wrong person. She longs to fight for what’s right.”

Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol) – “Tina’s younger sister and roommate, a big-hearted free-spirit ‘legilimens’ who can read minds.”

Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) – “An optimistic No-Maj factory worker/aspiring baker who gets introduced to the wizarding world when he meets Newt.”

Graves (Colin Farrell) – “A powerful auror and the right-hand man of the American wizarding world’s president.”

Mary Lou (Samantha Morton) – “The narrow-minded leader of the fanatical Second Salemers, a group looking to expose and destroy wizards and witches.”

Credence (Ezra Miller) – “Perhaps the cast’s most mysterious character. He’s Mary Lou’s troubled adopted son.”

Some more details about the film were also revealed on Entertainment Weekly. For one, while Redmayne’s Newt is the main character, the film will really have four leads with Tina (Katherine Waterston), Queenie (Alison Sudol), and Jacob (Dan Fogler) forming the rest of the team.

“The assumption is Newt’s front and center, but it’s a quartet,” Redmayne told EW, “So that feels like it slightly takes the [pressure] off. At least, that’s what I’m telling myself.”

The film will be completely set in 1926 New York and given the setting, the movie might even have a more “modern” feel that the Harry Potter movies, which were mostly set in a thousand-year old Scottish castle. And given the themes to be explored in this film (such as the conflicts between the magical and non-magical communities in America), the film is expected to be more mature in approach, with director David Yates describing it as “a wee bit more grown-up” and pointing out that “there are no kids in this movie.”

It’s an exciting set up and one full of potential. Fans will surely find many things to love about this newest foray into the wizarding world. Given that this is meant to be the first in a trilogy of films, we can look forward to a magical next few years.

You can also check out Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive gallery of photos from the film. And the official logo and website are now online via FantasticBeasts.com.

Watch this space for the latest news about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.