Behind-the-Scenes Secrets From ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’

2016 has been the biggest year for the Harry Potter universe since the book series ended in 2007. Fantastic Beasts, the textbook, was fictionally published in 1927 by Newt Scamander, famed Magizoologist. It’s unfocused and much happier reading off various fresh entries from some sort of wizarding world wiki, leaving even its delightful moments untethered from any forward momentum.

It was after the official confirmation of Warner Bros.

Fantastic Beasts marks Sudol’s first major film (it’s been her music that has brought her acclaim in the past) and while Waterston has appeared in various movies, it will be her turn as Rowling’s leading lady that will bring her global recognition. That means more original storylines, more action and, most importantly, more connections to the better known franchise.

Read on to see what our editors, Alexandra Heilbron and Marriska Fernandes, thought of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is now playing in theaters everywhere.

The story takes place a continent away and decades before the adventures of Harry, Ron and Hermione. And if you’ve enjoyed something, you don’t want to be the one who comes in and screws it up.

Many years before Harry Potter’s birth there was another time where turmoil ran the wizard world.

Give any element of wiz-world too much thought and it starts to feel icky. However, in Fantastic Beasts, it’s revealed that Newt’s best friend during his time at Hogwarts was a girl named Leta Lestrange – played by Zoë Kravitz. The reason millions became obsessed with Harry Potter was because his journey was a finite one: through school, with the same people around him. We know that between the period of 1900 and 1926 Grindelwald was busy tracking down and stealing the Elder Wand so he could set up his base and rise to power. Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), an employee of the Ministries of Magic and graduate of Hogwarts, travels to NY to complete a mission involving magical animals that have scattered throughout the world.

The film – which is set in 1926 – sees Newt stop in NY after a successful mission to hunt down magical creatures.

But while we do not know how he is going to show up in the new series, we have some speculations.

Remember, we know that Rowling is planning to end the series in 1945. Hers is a vibrantly realized world that longs to be explored in greater depth (Rowling owes it to herself, and to her eager fans, to write a few novels set in wizarding America). And though Fantastic Beasts has been in the works for quite a while, it seems nearly omniscient that the film would be so on the mark in discussing these subjects.

How does Newt Scamander fit into this? “Everybody is asking us if we felt the pressure, but it really felt like we were telling our own story so we felt liberated on a lot of levels”. The New York elite doesn’t like the freaks of New Salem. When two characters are sentenced to die by a member of MACUSA, we learn that the American wizarding community’s death penalty involves luring the condemned into a giant Pensieve by broadcasting their happy memories on its surface.

Perhaps one of the most surprising aspects of the film is its oscillating emotions.

You wouldn’t expect any cursing in a Harry Potter movie, and you’ll find none here either.

Sigh. No. No, he is not.

What makes you most excited about Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them?