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Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay

FantasyPlays
Pages
304
Published
2016
Language
English

Synopsis

Set seventy years before Harry Potter's arrival at Hogwarts, this original screenplay follows Newt Scamander — a British magizoologist — as he arrives in New York City in 1926 with a weathered leather case containing dozens of magical creatures, some of them dangerously powerful. When the case is accidentally swapped with that of Jacob Kowalski, a No-Maj (American term for Muggle) with aspirations to open a bakery, several creatures escape into the city.

What begins as a creature-retrieval story rapidly expands into something darker: the Magical Congress of the United States (MACUSA) is on high alert after a series of mysterious attacks on New York, attributed to an obscurus — a parasitic dark force that develops inside young magic users who have been taught to suppress their abilities. The forces of Gellert Grindelwald, the most dangerous dark wizard in the world, are operating in the shadows.

The first original screenplay Rowling wrote — having previously served only as executive producer on the Harry Potter films — Fantastic Beasts was published simultaneously with the film's November 2016 release. It introduces a new era of Wizarding World storytelling set in 1920s America, expanding the world's geography, politics, and history while planting the seeds for a conflict that would reshape the magical world for decades.

Prose complexity
5/10

Vibe

AdventurousDarkTenseWhimsical
Fish Out of WaterQuestPortal FantasyFound FamilySacrifice

Genres

Fantasy Plays Young Adult Adventure Drama

About the author

J
J. K. Rowling

Born on 31 July 1965 in Yate, near Bristol, England, Joanne Rowling published her first novel under the initials J.K. at her publisher's suggestion — the K borrowed from her grandmother Kathleen to create a gender-neutral pen name. Before her writing career, she worked as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in London and later as an English teacher in Oporto, Portugal. She conceived the idea for Harry Potter on a delayed train journey from Manchester to London in 1990...

Characters

Newt ScamanderProtagonist

A British magizoologist more comfortable with magical creatures than people, whose case full of fantastical animals becomes the catalyst for the film's events.

Jacob KowalskiSupporting

A No-Maj (Muggle) baker who becomes accidentally entangled in Newt's world — his warmth and wonder at the magical world provide the screenplay's emotional grounding.

Tina GoldsteinSupporting

A demoted MACUSA Auror whose initial arrest of Newt becomes the beginning of a more complicated professional and personal relationship.

Queenie GoldsteinSupporting

Tina's younger sister — a Legilimens (mind-reader) whose warmth and intuition make her the most emotionally perceptive character in the ensemble.

Credence BareboneSupporting

An adopted son in a fiercely anti-magic household whose suppressed magical abilities have taken a catastrophic form that threatens the city.

All characters in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay

Frequently asked questions

  • Is this a novel or a screenplay?

    It is a published screenplay — the script Rowling wrote for the 2016 film directed by David Yates. The published book contains the full shooting script formatted as a screenplay, with stage directions and dialogue, rather than a novelised narrative. It is a different reading experience from the Harry Potter novels.

  • When is this set, and how does it connect to Harry Potter?

    The story is set in New York City in 1926, approximately seventy years before the events of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. It exists in the same Wizarding World, with many of the same governing institutions (though in their American forms — MACUSA rather than the British Ministry of Magic), and introduces the young Albus Dumbledore's greatest adversary, Gellert Grindelwald, as the series' overarching antagonist.

  • Was this the first screenplay Rowling wrote?

    Yes — Rowling had previously served as executive producer on all eight Harry Potter films but had not written any of the scripts, which were adapted by Steve Kloves. Fantastic Beasts was the first original screenplay she wrote, and the first time the Wizarding World appeared in a story she wrote directly for the screen rather than adapting from prose.

  • How many Fantastic Beasts films were planned?

    The series was originally announced as a planned five-film franchise. Three films have been released: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016), The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), and The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022). The future of the remaining two films has not been confirmed as of 2025.

  • Who is Newt Scamander, and is he related to anyone in the main series?

    Newt Scamander is the fictional author of the Hogwarts Library textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, published in 2001. His grandson, Rolf Scamander, marries Luna Lovegood — mentioned in the epilogue of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Newt himself becomes a celebrated magizoologist whose work contributed to the foundation of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy.

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