Skip to main content

J.K. Rowling to educate us on magic in North America to prep for Fantastic Beasts

fantastic beasts screenplay jk rowling and where to find them city
Warner Bros.
This year is set to be a big one for Potterheads: Not only is Harry Potter series creator J.K. Rowling releasing an eighth book this summer, a film based on the spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will open in theaters in November. To get fans excited about the movie (as if they aren’t already), the bestselling author is set to publish a series of new writing on Pottermore this week called Magic in North America.

The website announced the news today, revealing that the first installment, History of Magic in North America, will be available tomorrow, March 8 at 9 am ET. The series will consist of four installments, with the last being published on Friday, March 11. “Magic in North America will bring to light the history of this previously unexplored corner of the wizarding world in the run up to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” according to the Pottermore announcement.

Exclusive video announcements about the series were released by EW and The Telegraph today as well. “The history of America is more amazing than you could ever imagine,” teases the video. It touches on subjects that will be covered in Rowling’s new writing, including the North American wizarding school, Ilvermorny; “skin walkers”; the Salem Witch trials; and the U.S. equivalent of the Ministry of Magic, the Magical Congress of the United States of America.

The knowledge may come in handy when Fantastic Beasts opens in theaters this fall. The film is set in New York in the 1920s and it follows Newt Scamander (played by Eddie Redmayne), a Ministry of Magic employee who is an expert in magical creatures. (You may recognize him as the author of the Fantastic Beasts book, which was assigned reading for Harry and his Hogwarts classmates.)

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hits theaters on November 18.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephanie Topacio Long
Stephanie Topacio Long is a writer and editor whose writing interests range from business to books. She also contributes to…
Fantastic Beasts 3 now has an official title and 2022 release date
Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.

Nearly three years ago, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the most recent installment in the Harry Potter prequel film series, left moviegoers with a big cliffhanger. Now, we know when the next sequel will arrive. Warner Bros. has announced that Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will hit theaters on Friday, April 15, 2022.

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling is once again collaborating with screenwriter Steve Kloves on the script. David Yates, the director of four Harry Potter films and both of the earlier Fantastic Beasts movies, is also returning to helm The Secrets of Dumbledore.

Read more
How VFX magic conjured the fantastic beasts of ‘Crimes of Grindelwald’
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Visual Effects VFX

In 2016, Warner Bros. Pictures and writer J.K. Rowling pulled off the impressive feat of kick-starting a new movie franchise set in the same "Wizarding World" as the Harry Potter series. Set decades before the events of the eight-part saga, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was a critical and commercial hit, earning acclaim for its magic-infused vision of 1920s New York City and the colorful, fictional creatures let loose upon it over the course of the film.

More on Fantastic Beasts

Read more
'Fantastic Beasts' sequel has found its young Dumbledore — and it's a veteran actor
jude law dumbledore fantastic beasts 2

One of the Harry Potter franchise's most popular characters is returning to the big screen.

Warner Bros. Pictures has announced that two-time Academy Award nominee Jude Law will play Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The film will explore the character's early years as a professor at Hogwarts School For Witchcraft and Wizardry, before he became the school's headmaster.

Read more