2016 is shaping up to be a big year for fans of theHarry Potterfranchise, with the new playHarry Potter and the Cursed Childdebuting in London this summer, and the upcoming movieFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themhitting theaters this November, set 70 years beforeHarry Potterever set foot in Hogwarts. Today we have word fromEntertainment Weeklythat authorJ.K. Rowlingis debuting a new four-part story onPottermore.com, entitledMagic in North America. The site has provided a brief video teaser for this new story, which explores important magical historical events in the U.S.
This story will essentially serve as a companion piece toFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which is set in 1920s New York City. This video teaser reveals that the story will cover a number of North American magical topics, such as the American version ofHogwarts, Ilvermorny, the Native American legend of Skinwalkers, the Salem Witch Trials and the U.S. version of the Ministry of Magic, the Magical Congress of the United States of America. While it isn’t known exactly how this story will connect toFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, it will certainly give fans plenty of background on U.S. magical history.
The first installment of this four-part story will debut Tuesday, March 8 at 9 AM ET (2 PM GMT), with a new segment being released every day at the same time through Friday, March 11. This news comes over a month afterJ.K. Rowlingrevealed the names of four morewizarding schools. Ilvermorny is the American school of witchcraft and wizardry located somewhere on the East Coast, but not in New York City, along with Mahoutokoro in Japan, the African school Uagadou and Castelobruxo in Brazil.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themstars Academy Award winnerEddie Redmayne(The Theory of Everything) in the central role of wizarding world magizoologist Newt Scamander, under the direction ofDavid Yates, who helmed the last four Harry Potter blockbusters.Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themopens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident… were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt’s fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
The cast ofFantastic Beasts and Where to Find Themis rounded out byKatherine Waterston(Steve Jobs,Inherent Vice) as Tina; Tony Award winnerDan Fogler(The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) as Jacob; Alison Sudol (Dig, Transparent) as Tina’s sister, Queenie;Ezra Miller(Trainwreck) as Credence; two-time Oscar nomineeSamantha Morton(In America, Sweet and Lowdown) as Mary Lou; Oscar winnerJon Voight(Coming Home, TV’sRay Donovan) as Henry Shaw, Sr.;Ron Perlman(theHellboyfilms) as Gnarlack;Carmen Ejogo(Selma) as Seraphina; Jenn Murray (Brooklyn) as Chastity; young newcomerFaith Wood-Blagroveas Modesty; andColin Farrell(True Detective) as Percival Graves. Take a look at the teaser below, and check back tomorrow for the first part of this new magical story.
