Which film series features J.K. Rowling as a screenwriter and follows Newt Scamander?

Fantastic Beasts is the film series written by J.K. Rowling that follows Newt Scamander.

The series began with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, released in 2016. Newt Scamander is a magizoologist whose travels bring him into conflicts involving magical creatures, wizards, and the rise of Gellert Grindelwald. Rowling wrote the screenplay for the first film and its sequels.

The films are set before the main Harry Potter story and expand the wizarding world’s history beyond Hogwarts and Harry’s generation. The project grew from the fictional textbook title that appears in the Harry Potter books.

Fantastic Beasts is a film series, not a direct screen adaptation of a Rowling novel. Its screenplay format and prequel setting distinguish it from the eight Harry Potter films, which adapt the seven main novels.