Fantastic Beasts and where to find them

The Wizarding World returns with its latest prequel next spring.

The sequel to ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them’ got an official title today and cast photo, featuring the first photo of Jude Law as Dumbledore.

Last night was opening night in theaters for the new movie "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them".  This was the much anticipated film to dive you right back into the world of "Harry Potter". "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" was written by original "Harry Potter" author J.K. R...

How do you make a successful Harry Potter prequel without Harry Potter? J.K. Rowling’s new spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, travels back nearly 70 years to 1926 before the events of the first Potter movie to tell a whole new story in a new setting with (almost) all new characters. Reviving the magical universe from the second biggest franchise of all time is a pretty risky move, but Fantastic Beasts does a good job of blending the familiar with the new.

The rumors are true: not only will Johnny Depp have a role in the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, as well as being cast in the sequel, the mystery character he’s playing is none other than Gellert Grindelwald, Albus Dumbledore’s friend/crush-turned-sworn-enemy back when both wizards were young and full of ambition.

We were all so busy scrambling to avert one apocalypse today, we didn’t even see another one rearing its head in the distance. SlashFilm recently spoke to power-producer David Heyman at the junket for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and questioned the Hollywood player about the plans for Warner Bros.’ impending Willy Wonka film. Without making any concrete announcements about what to expect from the early-in-development project, Heyman did drop one rather ominous prophecy when asked whether the script would be a remake of the popular Gene Wilder-starring film or the Tim Burton-directed version.

Thursday brought some big news for Harry Potter fans, namely that a five new movies are on the way. During a Global Fan Event for ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,’ J.K. Rowling announced that the Harry Potter prequel spinoff will be followed by four sequels, and that she’s already completed the script for the second film. The event featured a live-streamed panel with the movie’s cast, then afterwards showed the audience an exclusive sneak peek of the new movie.

Much of the appeal of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter website Pottermore lies in the extra bits the site dishes out from time to time, often from Rowling herself, as she expands on the Wizarding World’s universe. To prepare us all for the imminent Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, she’s published a few short histories of magic in America, where the film takes place. Today, she came out with another about the formation of MACUSA, the governing body of magic in the U.S., and how it fits in with American history as we know it.

We’ve seen a handful of teasers and glimpses at Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them already, but the first full trailer has arrived and it’s the most magical one yet, literally. J.K. Rowling’s spinoff shows us the American wizarding world in the early 1900s as we follow Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander, a British magizoologist who travels to New York City with a suitcase fu

One of the major truths of the entertainment industry is that there will never be a more interesting movie than the one you haven’t yet made. This weekend, while The Legend of Tarzan director David Yates was gently trying to nudge conversations towards his film currently in theaters, people were understandably curious about his upcoming return to Hogwarts, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. And Yates let a particularly interesting piece of information drop.

It’s been several years since Muggles had any major new Harry Potter content to enjoy, but after a brief dry period, J.K. Rowling’s world of magic is on the verge of a major comeback. (And just in time; I was beginning to regret this lightning bolt tattoo I got on my forehead.) Potter himself returns in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, a two-part West End stage play based on a story by Rowling, and the HPCU (that’s “Harry Potter Cinematic Universe,” y’all, c’mon) returns to big screens this fall with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a prequel to the main Potter franchises based on another book by Rowling.

The cast of Ridley Scott’s new Alien prequel just keeps growing — and getting more interesting, but for as much as we like the actors signing on for Alien: Covenant, it’s going to be kind of a bummer watching them get slaughtered by Xenomorphs and also, presumably, Michael Fassbender. The latest batch of actors to join the cast of Scott’s prequel includes Spotlight’s Billy Crudup, Empire’s Jussie Smollett, indie favorite Amy Seimetz and more.