This week's issue of Entertainment Weekly contains a treat for Harry Potter fans anxiously awaiting news from the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The magazine just released its new cover image, which features actor Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, the main protagonist of the story.
In the Harry Potter novels, Scamander wrote an educational book called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which Hogwarts used as a teaching aide to teach first year young witches and wizards about creatures of magic. Harry and Ron eventually left their own notes in their copy of the book about the things they did and encountered while at the school.
In reality, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling released a book by the same name, but published it under Scamander's name to raise funds for the Comic Relief charity. In 2013, Rowling announced that a film based on the book was in the works, the first in a trilogy of new Harry Potter-related films with Rowling writing the screenplay and David Yates directing. The story takes place 70 years before Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and tells the tale of Scamander, who visits New York in search of new magical beasts.
Here's a first look at Redmayne as Scamander:
Entertainment Weekly promises that this issue will also contain more information about the upcoming film.
"So what's this movie actually about?" asks the magazine on its website. "What are the characters? How will Fantastic Beasts differ from the Potter films? What creatures can we expect? And what are American wizards like, anyway? We'll have all that, interviews with the cast and producers, plus first photos from the set, and more."
Although Scamander never appeared in the Harry Potter films, his name popped up on the Marauder's Map in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. The reasoning behind this was never explained, but his appearance on the map confirmed that he was at Hogwarts at the time.
In addition to Redmayne, the film also stars Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Ezra Miller, Dan Folger, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight, Gemma Chan, Ron Perlman and Carmen Ejogo.
J.K. Rowling initially teased the movie adaptation of the book on Twitter in 2014.
Cry, foe! Run amok! Fa awry! My wand won’t tolerate this nonsense.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 6, 2014
Newt only meant to stay in New York for a few hours. Circumstances ensured that he remained... for the length of a movie, anyway. X — J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 7, 2014
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in theaters on Nov. 18, 2016.
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