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First trailer for Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them

Eddie Redmayne stars in magical clip

First trailer for Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them
15 December 2015

The début trailer for the Harry Potter spin-off film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has arrived, revealing Eddie Redmayne's wizarding skills and the first Harry Potter-related movie since 2011's Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Redmayne stars as magizoologist Newt Scamander (who sounds like he should be running for US President) in a film written by JK Rowling, inspired by the Hogwarts textbook of the same name.

Rowling's source material was published back in 2001 under the fictitious author name of Scamander - a fictional reference book written in the style of Harry Potter's copy of the textbook of the same name, mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

The trailer for the first in what is planned to be a new series opens in New York in 1926, with Scamander completing a global tour to collect new magical animals; however, inevitably, things don't run to plan and we'd bet that an animal or two gets on the loose. It's like Jurassic Park all over again.

There's a poster too, with a full synopsis below. Take a look and see what you think.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be in cinemas November 18, 2016

Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne (“The Theory of Everything”) stars in the central role of wizarding world magizoologist Newt Scamander, under the direction of David Yates, who helmed the last four “Harry Potter” blockbusters.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident…were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” also stars Katherine Waterston (“Steve Jobs,” “Inherent Vice”) as Tina; Tony Award winner Dan Fogler (“The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”) as Jacob; Alison Sudol (“Dig,” “Transparent”) as Tina’s sister, Queenie; Ezra Miller (“Trainwreck”) as Credence; two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton (“In America,” “Sweet and Lowdown”) as Mary Lou; Oscar winner Jon Voight (“Coming Home,” TV’s “Ray Donovan”) as Henry Shaw, Sr.; Ron Perlman (the “Hellboy” films) as Gnarlack; Carmen Ejogo (“Selma”) as Seraphina; Jenn Murray (“Brooklyn”) as Chastity; young newcomer Faith Wood-Blagrove as Modesty; and Colin Farrell (“True Detective”) as Percival Graves.

The film marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling, whose beloved Harry Potter books were adapted into the top-grossing film franchise of all time. Her script was inspired by the Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by her character Newt Scamander.

The film reunites a number of people from the “Harry Potter” features, including producers David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram.

Collaborating with Yates behind the scenes are: Oscar-winning director of photography Philippe Rousselot (“A River Runs Through It,” the “Sherlock Holmes” movies), three-time Oscar-winning production designer Stuart Craig (“The English Patient,” “Dangerous Liaisons,” “Gandhi,” the “Harry Potter” films), three-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood (“Chicago,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Alice in Wonderland”), Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Tim Burke (“Gladiator,” the “Harry Potter” films), Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Christian Manz (“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1”), and Yates’ longtime editor Mark Day (the last four “Harry Potter” films).

“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” is being filmed at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, which was home to the “Harry Potter” films for a decade. Some scenes were also shot on location in Liverpool, England.