In a new featurette, author J.K. Rowling discusses protagonist Newt Scamander of the upcoming Harry Potter spinoff film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The new film, which marks Rowling’s screenwriting debut, is set in 1926 and follows Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a magizoologist and former Hogwarts student who travels to the United States and brings along a special briefcase containing some of his magical creatures.
“My heroes are always people who feel themselves to be set apart, stigmatized, or others,” Rowling says. “That’s at the heart of most of what I write and it’s certainly at the heart of this movie.”
Redmayne adds that Scamander “feels more at home with creatures than he does with human beings.”
Rowling also teases in the clip that when some of Scamander’s creatures are set loose in New York City, it will have “implications for the whole wizarding world.”
New footage from the film is also seen in the featurette. Check it out below:
In addition to Redmayne, the film stars Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Jon Voight Ron Perlman, Carmen Ejogo, newcomer Faith Wood-Blagrove, and Colin Farrell. It is being directed by David Yates, who worked on four of the Harry Potter films.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is slated to hit theaters November 18, 2016.
