J.K. Rowling's New Pottermore Stories Will Set the Table for 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'
Eddie Redmayne in ‘Fantastic Beasts’ (YouTube/Warner Bros.)
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — the film based on J.K. Rowling’s 2001 “text book” that expands upon the wizarding world laid out in the Harry Potter books — does not arrive in theaters until November 18. But the masters of the Potterverse are already starting to set the table for its premiere.
The History of Magic in North America, a series of four new Potter-adjacent stories written by Rowling, will appear for the first time tomorrow on Pottermore, the Harry Potter-focused digital platform. (People has the exclusive and the trailer to accompany the news.) Each of them will zero in on a different aspect of the mythology that provides the subtext for the Fantastic Beasts film adaptation, which introduces the magical underworld that has long existed in the United States. Among the topics covered: Ilvermorny, the American Hogwarts; a Native American legend called Skin-walkers; the Salem witch trials; and the Magical Congress of the United States of America, the Yankee version of England’s Ministry of Magic.
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Fantastic Beasts is set in New York 70 years before the events of the original Potter novels. It stars Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, the purported author of the Potterverse textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a guide to various beasts and creatures. The History of Magic in North America will provide more information about the institutions and events that inform the film’s setting and plot. Entertainment Weekly and People both have the trailer for The History of Magic, which goes into a bit more detail and promises that “everything you think you know is about to change.”
In essence, Warner Bros., the studio that benefited enormously from the success of the Harry Potter movies, is doing its best to expand that universe into something that rivals the boundless and commercially lucrative sweep of the Star Wars saga. Fantastic Beasts is — no surprise — slated to be the first film in a trilogy. And this certainly won’t be the last time you’ll be hearing about it between now and November.
Watch the ‘Fantastic Beasts’ teaser:
