‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ Begins Filming in England

The story takes place years before Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermione made their way to the legendary Hogwarts School of Witchcraft. “‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world”, Rowling said in a statement past year.

Colin Farrell, who is now starring on the second season of HBO’s True Detective, recently also starred in Yargos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival back in May.

Principal photography has begun on Warner Bros.

Filming started today, August 17, at Warner Bros. “Academy Award victor Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything“) stars as Newt Scamander, the wizarding world’s preeminent magizoologist, who stops in New York following his travels to find and document magical creatures”, it reads.

Rowling, 50, who has turned screenwriter with the film, teased the scoop on her Twitter page, reported Entertainment Weekly.

In addition to Redmayne, the Fantastic Beasts cast includes Katherine Waterston as Tina, Alison Sudol as Queenie, Dan Fogler as Jacob, Ezra Miller as Credence, Samantha Morton as Mary Lou, Jenn Murray as Chastity, Faith Wood-Blagrove as Modesty, and Colin Farrell as Graves.

The film is being produced by David Heyman, producer of all eight of the blockbuster “Harry Potter” features; J.K. Rowling; Steve Kloves; and Lionel Wigram.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is predicted to be at least a trilogy, but Warner Brothers has confirmed that the fate of the franchise depends on how the first film fares at the box office.