Which J.K. Rowling novel was adapted as the 2016 film Fantastic Beasts?
Answer
None; it was an original screenplay
The 2016 film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was based on an original screenplay by J.K. Rowling, not adapted from one of her novels.
The film expands on a fictional Hogwarts textbook, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which Rowling originally published in 2001 as a charity companion book. That short book is presented as Harry Potter’s school text and lists magical creatures, but it does not contain the film’s plot.
The movie follows Newt Scamander, a magizoologist who arrives in New York in 1926 with a suitcase of magical creatures. Rowling wrote the screenplay, making it her screenwriting debut. The story is set decades before the Harry Potter novels and introduced a new cast of central characters.
A frequent mistake is calling the film a direct adaptation of the companion book. The book supplied the title and fictional background, while the movie’s narrative was newly created for the screen.