Which 2016 film did J.K. Rowling write as a screenwriter set in the Harry Potter universe?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is the 2016 film that J.K. Rowling wrote as a screenwriter in the Harry Potter universe.

The film was written by Rowling and directed by David Yates. It is set decades before the Harry Potter story and follows Newt Scamander, a magizoologist whose magical creatures escape in New York City. Eddie Redmayne plays Newt in the film.

The title echoes a Hogwarts textbook mentioned in the Harry Potter novels. Rowling had previously published a charity companion book under the same title in 2001, presented as a textbook by the fictional Newt Scamander. The film expands that small fictional reference into a prequel-era story.

The movie began a film series planned around the wizarding world. Its immediate sequels were Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, so the subtitle of the first film is often shortened in conversation.