With Captain America: Civil War just around the corner, and Suicide Squad, Rogue One, and Doctor Strange coming later this year, it’s been easy to forget that Warner Bros. is about to get back in the Harry Potter game in a big way with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, penned by Jo Rowling herself.
It’s going to be a lot harder to forget now that we have this new teaser trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which premiered during tonight’s MTV Movie Awards.
I’ve been excited about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on principle ever since it was announced, but even with the “announcement trailer” Warners released a few months back there hasn’t been much to go on. This trailer, though, this trailer gives us a lot. The story itself is still somewhat unclear other than the fact that Newt Scamander has a suitcase full of beasts and they almost certainly find some way to escape, but that’s fine. What the trailer is really selling is the familiar look and feel of the Harry Potter films while also plainly establishing that this is not a film about Harry Potter. Instead, we’re leaving the UK and headed to New York in all of its speakeasy-sporting 1920s glory. We also get a slightly better impression of Scamander himself, with this trailer revealing that he was expelled for much the same reason Hagrid was and that, like Hagrid, Dumbledore came to his defense.
If you haven’t yet, you should read Rowling’s recent short story on the History of Magic in North America to get a sense of some of the flavor she’ll be brining this. With Rowling writing, and David Yates returning to direct, I could not be more excited about this one. The Harry Potter series has always been ripe with neat creatures coming both from folklore and Jo Rowling’s imagination, and I’m beside myself that Fantastic Beasts gives us an opportunity to see even more of these creatures brought to life on screen.
Oh, and in that short story I linked to, Rowling mentions sasquatches. I have no idea if there are going to be sasquatches in Fantastic Beasts, but if there’s not, it’s not too late to start thinking about reshoots.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens November 18.
Source: Warner Bros.
