Which J.K. Rowling book was adapted into the 2016 film that began the Fantastic Beasts series?

The 2016 film began with J.K. Rowling’s book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Rowling originally published Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in 2001 as a companion book to the Harry Potter novels. It is presented as a Hogwarts textbook by the fictional author Newt Scamander and includes notes attributed to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

For the film series, Rowling wrote the screenplay rather than adapting a conventional narrative novel. The 2016 movie follows Newt Scamander in 1920s New York and introduces a story set decades before Harry’s time.

The title is shared by the companion book and the first film, but the formats differ substantially. The film series expands Newt’s background and the wider history of the wizarding world beyond the textbook’s short, catalog-like entries.