What is the name of J.K. Rowling’s wizarding-world film series launched in 2016?

The wizarding-world film series launched in 2016 is Fantastic Beasts.

The series began with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, released in 2016. J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay, making it her screenwriting debut. The story follows magizoologist Newt Scamander and is set decades before the Harry Potter story, beginning in New York in 1926.

Although the title echoes a Hogwarts textbook, the films expand the wizarding world beyond Britain. Later entries move through settings including London and Paris and develop the history of Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald.

The film series is separate from the eight-film adaptation of the Harry Potter novels. Its title can also cause confusion because Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was first published as a companion book in 2001, credited to the fictional author Newt Scamander.