New York City is the main setting of J. K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts screenplay in 1926.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, released as a film in 2016, follows the magizoologist Newt Scamander after he arrives in New York with a suitcase containing magical creatures. Several creatures escape, drawing Newt into conflict with American magical authorities and a dangerous disturbance affecting the city.
The story takes place decades before Harry Potter attends Hogwarts. Its American setting introduces the Magical Congress of the United States of America, usually abbreviated as MACUSA, along with differences between British and American wizarding customs. The film’s period setting also places the action during the Prohibition era.
Rowling wrote the screenplay as an original story inspired by the fictional Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. That textbook had previously been published as a charity companion volume, but the film is not a direct adaptation of a full narrative from the book.