Come "OMG" with us over Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander.
It’s happening.
We’ve known for a few years now that we would be returning to the wizarding world of Harry Potter in the prequel film, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Follow Them, but it didn’t truly sink in until now.
The spin-off film is based on a textbook of the same name that was required reading in the Care of Magical Creatures course at Hogwarts and will follow famed magizoologist Newt Scamander (as played by Eddie Redmayne).
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On Tuesday, Warner Bros. released the beastly title card for the movie, which was already enough to send us into a blind excitement panic.
There’s plenty more where that came from, though: Today, we get our first look at Redmayne as Newt Scamander on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.
Fantastic Beasts is directed by David Yates, who did the last four Harry Potter films, with a script by J.K. Rowling herself. It also stars Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs) as Porpentina "Tina" Goldstein and Colin Farrell in an as-yet-unconfirmed role.
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As far as plot details go, they remain scarce. We know that Fantastic Beasts will introduce the American Hogwarts, and that it probably won’t feature a cameo from The Boy Who Lived. (We’re still holding out hope for one from a younger, gay Dumbledore.)
Now, we also know the specific year the movie will take place, 1926 in New York, and that the building Scamander is standing in front of is the Magical Congress of the United States of America (or MACUSA) -- think the Ministry of Magic, but stateside -- in NYC’s famed Woolworth Building.
Here’s what Daniel Radcliffe had to say about reprising his Harry Potter role: