Which J.K. Rowling book became the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?

The film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was based on J.K. Rowling’s book of the same name.

The book is presented as a Hogwarts textbook written by the fictional magizoologist Newt Scamander. Rowling published it in 2001 as a companion volume to Harry Potter, with proceeds supporting Comic Relief. Its format is primarily a guide to magical creatures rather than a conventional narrative novel.

For the 2016 film, Rowling wrote an original screenplay using the fictional textbook’s title and author as a starting point. The story follows Newt Scamander in 1926 New York, decades before the main Harry Potter storyline. Eddie Redmayne played Newt in the film.

A frequent confusion is to treat the film as a direct adaptation of a full-length adventure contained in the textbook. The published book is a short reference-style companion, while the film introduced a new cinematic plot and expanded the Wizarding World beyond Britain.