Which J.K. Rowling screenplay was the first film in the Wizarding World set before Harry Potter’s story?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was the first film in the Wizarding World set before Harry Potter’s story.

Released in 2016, the film is set in New York in 1926, decades before the events of the Harry Potter novels. J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay, marking her screenwriting debut. The story follows British magizoologist Newt Scamander, whose case of magical creatures is accidentally opened in the city.

The film grew from the fictional Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Rowling had previously published a charity companion book under that title in 2001, credited to the fictional author Newt Scamander. The 2016 film developed that invented textbook author into a major character.

Its title is sometimes confused with the second film, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, released in 2018. The first film introduced the prequel setting, Newt, and the younger version of Albus Dumbledore’s era. It also broadened the franchise beyond Britain and Hogwarts.