Which J.K. Rowling work was the first screenplay she wrote for the Wizarding World?

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was the first screenplay J.K. Rowling wrote for the Wizarding World.

The 2016 film was written by Rowling and directed by David Yates. It follows magizoologist Newt Scamander in 1926 New York, decades before Harry Potter attends Hogwarts. The story expands the setting beyond Britain and introduces a new group of central characters.

The screenplay was inspired by the fictional Hogwarts textbook of the same name, which Rowling originally published as a charity companion book in 2001. The film is not a direct adaptation of that textbook; it uses its author and title as a starting point for an original narrative.

The film launched a planned series of prequel-era movies. Its sequels were The Crimes of Grindelwald, released in 2018, and The Secrets of Dumbledore, released in 2022.