Which 2016 film did J.K. Rowling write as a screenwriter?
Answer
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, released in 2016.
The film is set in 1926, decades before the main Harry Potter story, and follows Newt Scamander, a British magizoologist who arrives in New York with a case of magical creatures. Eddie Redmayne plays Newt, while the story introduces a different time period and international setting within the Wizarding World.
Rowling wrote the screenplay, making it her screenwriting debut. The title was adapted from a fictional Hogwarts textbook first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. In the fictional world, the textbook is attributed to Newt Scamander.
The film began a planned series and was followed by Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018 and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore in 2022. Those sequel titles are not the answer because the question asks for Rowling’s 2016 screenplay debut.