Harry Potter Spin-off: Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

Voldemort had to spread out of England a lot wider. After he killed Harry, he could move through the rest of Britain, then into Europe, and build up strength there before he took on the rest of the world.

I'm definitely going to see this unless it's terrible but I still think Luna not being the protagonist was a bit of a missed opportunity given Rowling's statements that she ended up as a prominent magizoologist. Because what part of Luna Lovegood: The Movie doesn't print money?

The part where we don't get to have it set in the Roaring Twenties.

I'm glad Rowling chose this route. The change in setting and character gives the movie much more of a chance to be its own thing.

edited 15th Feb '16 12:08:52 AM by DrDougsh

I like Luna, but I can't imagine a movie with her as main character.

I've two main concerns about things that could make or break this movie and its inevitable sequels.

First, I'm hoping the film doesn't get bogged down in gratuitous references to continuity or appeals to fan nostalgia; i.e. in the form of some kind of a Hobbit-style framing device in the modern day with cameos by the old cast. Don't waste time on that, don't let the film get bloated in self-indulgence. Let the film stand on its own merits, rather than only in relation to the previous books/films.

Second, I'm hoping they tell a story that's satisfying on its own. Even if they want to set up a sequel, don't do it in a way that makes the story at hand less enjoyable. Personally, I'm hoping they just go for three isolated stories rather than attempt to tell some grand epic across three movies.

The Harry Potter books were pretty good at keeping their own plotlines contained to one story each, so I figure Rowling will have done the same for these.

There isn't really much of a danger that any of the old cast will turn up. In the 1920s Dumbledore was still a child and everyone else wasn't even born.

No, Dumbledore was not a child in the 1920s. He was a child in the 1880s-1890s. He was probably already around at Hogwarts in the 1920s, considering that 20-something years later, in 1945, Dumbledore, Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts, defeated Grindlewald in a duel.

According to the wiki, Dumbledore was born in 1881, so he's about forty when the movie takes place. For all we know, he's already a Hogwarts teacher during this period. Hell, he might even have taught Newt.

It is before he defeated Grindlewald, though....in any case, the number of people who might turn up is small. It is more likely that we encounter Flamel.

Save the Michael Gambon cameo for the sequel.

Luna Lovegood as protagonist would have been awesome. But there's still plenty of time for that, I suppose. The actor is now ... in her early twenties?

They can wait until she has grown up and then do this movie where Luna is a successful magizoologist and goes on adventures and all that.

I would so go and see that movie. Yeah, I cannot imagine what she'd do as protagonist, but that's Rowling's job, I just have to watch it.

Needs more beasts.

Colin Farrell? Not what I expected in a movie about magic.

I am so hyped for this. Harry Potter was my Star Wars.

Which i guess makes Percy Jackson my Star Trek. Similar but very different franchise with tons of sequels.

Only all it's films were terrible.

What's interesting about it is that it's a totally new story that's nothing like the book it's named after. I actually only read a few entries of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but I'm pretty sure I don't remember anything about Newt Scamander travelling to New York.

So at least I probably won't miss out on much info besides maybe a few names of the creatures.

Rowlings beasts are really weird...and really British.

If I recall, Fantastic Beasts was just a single book that was mostly just a bestiary with some background info and silly annotations. It was supposed to be a defictionalized version of a textbook.

In the movie, the narration will be interspersed with Harry, Ron and Hermione arguing about the beasts as they show up in the city. ;p

You joke but I'd legitimately love that.

I can't wait for them to adapt the Quiditch one. Maybe a sports movie, or a mockumentary.

I liked the end of the teaser when Newt gets up out of bed and jumps in his suitcase.

That scene looked familiar...reminded me of Mary Poppins and her magic bag.

Well, obviously, she was a witch. ;p

Hyped as well. Visuals seem awesome, with none of the gratuitous grimy gloomy grittiness that plagued the British films.

Unless the latter are actually faithful to the actual general mood in the UK, which is such a sad thing to contemplate...

Ah, so Dumbledore did teach Newt.

But did he administer his NEWTs? ;p

The best way to do a Mythology Gag to the book would be to have Harry, Hermione and Ron do the DVD commentary.