Which screenplay did J.K. Rowling write as the basis for the 2016 film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them?

J.K. Rowling wrote the screenplay for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them as the basis for the 2016 film.

The film is set in 1926, decades before the main Harry Potter story, and follows Newt Scamander, a British wizard and magizoologist who arrives in New York. Magical creatures escape from his case, drawing him into conflict with American wizarding authorities and a wider threat connected to Gellert Grindelwald.

The screenplay was Rowling’s first produced film script. It was inspired by a fictional textbook mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, but it is not a direct adaptation of a pre-existing Rowling novel. The screenplay was published in book form in 2016.

Eddie Redmayne played Newt Scamander. The film began a planned series that continued with The Crimes of Grindelwald in 2018 and The Secrets of Dumbledore in 2022. The title’s resemblance to the Hogwarts textbook is deliberate, linking the new story to the earlier wizarding world.