Eddie Redmayne is about to find out where J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts come from: The actor has signed on to star in the forthcoming prequel to the successful Harry Potter series of books. Redmayne will play Newt Scamander, the foremost magizoologist of the wizarding world introduced in Rowling’s series of best-selling novels and subsequent films. Scamander will be at the center of the new movie, searching the world for magical creatures to discover and catalog in his Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which will become a textbook used by Harry and friends in Hogwarts school in years to come. Rowling has taken over screenwriting for Fantastic Beasts, which will be directed by David Yates, who also directed the final four entries in the Harry Potter series.
