EW Reveals “Fantastic Beasts” Plot, Character Descriptions, and More!

Nov 05, 2015

Posted by: Catherine

Fantastic Beasts, News

This week Entertainment Weekly released a lot of insight into the mysterious Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them films. It has been two years since we first new the films were going to be made, and up until now, everyone involved in the film projects have sealed their lips.

Now, within just a couple of days,  EW has released the official plot line, character descriptions, photos, and discussed the diversity of the cast. Those of you who have been burning to know more about this film Harry Potter world series, read on. Those of you who do not wish to be spoiled, do not continue.

When first posed with the idea of creating the Fantastic Beasts movies, Warnber Bros. decided to approach the encyclopedia-like Hogwarts textbook as a faux documentary. J.K. Rowling had a better idea. Then she took the creative reigns, and became a first-time screenwriter for the Fantastic Beasts franchise to write the story inside her head. They can’t reveal too many details of course, but Entertainment Weekly’s report of the plot of Fantastic Beasts as follows:

“Eccentric magizoologist Newt Scamander (Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne) comes to New York (for a reason we won’t disclose) with his trusty weathered case. This case is one of those way-way-way-bigger-on-the-inside magical devices, and within are expansive habitats for a collection of rare and endangered magical creatures from Newt’s travels around globe. He discovers the American wizarding community is fearfully hiding from Muggles (who are called “No-Maj” in the States, more on that here) and the threat of public exposure is an even graver concern than in the UK (remember the Salem witch trials?). Fantastic Beasts is the story of what happens when this uniquely skilled English wizard travels to wiz-phobic America and a variety of his creatures, some quite dangerous … get out of their case.”

 

Along with plot lines comes character profiles. After all, characters play a huge role in driving stories, and we know absolutely nothing about these characters, other than a few tidbits J.K. Rowling has revealed on Twitter over the last year. Well, we knew nothing until now. Along with the new photos that offer a first glimpse at the Fantastic Beast films, Entertainment Weekly released a set that included character descriptions in the photo subtitles. Entertainment Weekly reports:

 

“Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander: An eccentric globe-hopping English “magizoologist” wizard who’s far more comfortable around beasts and creatures than he is around other people. Comes to New York on a quest with his case full of magical habitats containing rare and endangered species.

Katherine Waterson as Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein: An ambitious worker at the Magical Congress of the United States of America (aka MACUSA, the U.S. version of the Ministry of Magic) who meets Newt. Tina is relegated to an office well below her abilities after she stood up for the wrong person. She longs to fight for what’s right.

Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein: Tina’s younger sister and roommate, a big-hearted free-spirit “legilimens” who can read minds.

Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski: An optimistic No-Maj (aka Muggle) factory worker/aspiring baker who gets introduced to the wizarding world when he meets Newt. Fun fact: He’s the Harry Potter franchise’s first Muggle main character. 

Colin Farrell as Graves: A powerful auror and the right-hand man of the American wizarding world’s president. [aka the American Kingsley Shacklebolt]

Samantha Morton as Mary Lou: The narrow-minded leader of the fanatical Second Salemers, a group looking to expose and destroy wizards and witches.

Ezra Miller as Credence: Perhaps the cast’s most mysterious character. He’s Mary Lou’s troubled adopted son.

 

Please flip through EW’s gallery of photos with the character descriptions to see profile shots of each actor playing their character.

As many of you may remember, fans and Twitter users opened the discussion of race concerning the Fantastic Beasts films, when a user asked J.K. Rowling about the lack of diversity they were seeing in the few members of the cast that had been announced. J.K. Rowling addressed this Tweet, saying to hold back an claims about the casts lack of diversity until the whole project was revealed. True to her word, as word was released of more actors being added to the Fantastic Beasts cast, the cast members became more diverse. In Entertainment Weekly’s Fantastic Beasts cover piece, producer David Heyman also addressed the matter, saying:

 

“Like all of Jo Rowling’s works, [Fantastic Beasts] is populated with a variety of people and that will be the same in this series over the course of the films,” Heyman says. “There will be people of various types of ethnicities. In New York in the 1920s, there was a segregation between white and black, the neighborhoods were largely separate, and that is reflected in [the film]. But the wizarding world is a much more open and tolerant society where people of color and different ethnic backgrounds exist harmoniously together. There are people of color filling this world in an organic way.” 

[Entertainment Weekly wrote:] The criticism is ironic because Fantastic Beasts is actually a story about acceptance (an anti-bigotry message that also recurred in the Potterbooks and films). Without giving anything away, the members of the wizarding world are outcasts in 1926 New York and subject to discriminatory persecution.

 

To read more of this conversational piece, please visit EW’s website. You may purchase your own copy of this week’s Entertainment Weekly magazine, covering Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them on news stands and online.

 





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.