What was the first screenplay written by J.K. Rowling for the Wizarding World?
Answer
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
J.K. Rowling’s first screenplay for the Wizarding World was Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The 2016 film was Rowling’s screenwriting debut and expanded the fictional universe beyond Harry Potter. It follows Newt Scamander, a magizoologist whose magical creatures escape in New York in 1926. Eddie Redmayne plays Newt, while the film also introduces characters and conflicts that continue in later stories.
The title echoes a Hogwarts textbook attributed to Newt Scamander. Rowling had previously published a 2001 charity book with the same title, presented as a school text from the Harry Potter world. The screenplay is not simply a film version of that short companion book; it uses the title as a starting point for an original story.
The film began a planned series connected to the earlier novels but set decades before Harry attends Hogwarts. Its follow-ups include The Crimes of Grindelwald and The Secrets of Dumbledore, making it distinct from the original eight-film Harry Potter adaptation.