Warner Bros. And J.K. Rowling Team Up For New HARRY POTTER-Inspired Films

The bestselling author J.K. Rowling is returning to her Harry Potter roots for a series of Warner Bros. films based on Newt Scamander, the fictional author of Harry Potter's first-year textbook ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.' The world-renowned writer will kick off her screenwriting debut and the script will be an original story featuring magical creatures and characters, some of which Harry Potter fans will be familiar with, but she insists it's ‘neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.' Rowling, who earlier revealed that she was behind the pseudonym Robert Galbraith and the crime novel ‘The Cuckoo's Calling,' said:

It all started when Warner Bros came to me with the suggestion of turning Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a film. I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of Fantastic Beasts, realised by another writer was difficult.

Rowling wrote two small books, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' and ‘Quidditch Through the Ages' – both named after Harry's schoolbooks within the novels and published in March 2001. Another Potter spin-off book, ‘The Tales of Beedle the Bard', followed in December 2008. The upcoming films will take place in New York, 70 years before Harry's story got underway, but the studio didn't mention when the first film could go into production. We'll keep you updated, so stay tuned.