Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay

• Type: Published Screenplay, Supplementary Material
• Author: J.K. Rowling
• Publisher: Little, Brown (UK), Scholastic (US) (Pottermore)
• Publication Date: 18 November 2016 (Pottermore)

• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay* is a hardback book containing the full script for the film of the same name. It is not a novel, but is presented in a standard screenplay format, featuring scene headings, character names, dialogue, and essential action descriptions.

The book's cover and interior illustrations were designed by MinaLima, the graphic design firm that worked on the Harry Potter films. The cover features an Art Deco style, with intricate gold foil detailing and illustrations of several Magical Creatures from the story, such as the Swooping Evil and the Thunderbird, woven into the design. The interior includes further line art illustrations of creatures and symbols relevant to the plot.

The screenplay is set in 1926 and follows the British Magizoologist Newt Scamander upon his arrival in New York. His magically-expanded briefcase, which houses numerous Magical Creatures, is accidentally switched with that of Jacob Kowalski, a No-Maj (the American term for a Muggle). Several creatures escape, forcing Newt to track them down across the city. In his efforts, he is joined by Jacob, as well as by Porpentina Goldstein (Tina), a demoted Auror for the Magical Congress of the United States of America (MACUSA), and her Legilimens sister, Queenie Goldstein. Together, the quartet works to recapture the escaped beasts, including a troublesome Niffler and a giant, rampaging Erumpent. Simultaneously, the American wizarding community is threatened by a mysterious, destructive entity that MACUSA's Head of Magical Security, Percival Graves, is investigating. This dark force is revealed to be an Obscurus, a parasitic manifestation of repressed magic, which has latched onto a troubled young man named Credence Barebone. The story's climax reveals that Percival Graves is actually the powerful Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald in disguise, who was manipulating Credence to harness the Obscurus for his own purposes. After a major battle in the New York subway, Grindelwald is subdued and taken into MACUSA custody.

This book marks J.K. Rowling's debut as a screenwriter. It was published to coincide with the worldwide release of the first film in the *Fantastic Beasts* series. The story is a prequel to the Harry Potter saga, set seventy years before Harry's story begins. While the screenplay takes its title and central character from the 2001 charity textbook, *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*, it expands the world significantly by creating a new narrative. This publication was the first of several original screenplays to be released in book form, followed by those for *The Crimes of Grindelwald* and *The Secrets of Dumbledore*.

The screenplay is a major expansion of the Wizarding World canon, offering the first in-depth look at wizarding society outside of Britain. It introduces fans to the magical community in 1920s America and its governing body, MACUSA. Key new concepts and lore are established, including:

• No-Maj: The American English term for a non-magical person.
• Obscurus/Obscurial: A powerful, unstable force of dark magic that develops in a young witch or wizard who suppresses their magical abilities. This provided a potential backstory for the condition of Ariana Dumbledore.
• The Global Wizarding World: It details different laws and customs, such as America's stricter enforcement of the International Statute of Secrecy.
• Gellert Grindelwald: While mentioned extensively in *Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows*, this is the character's first chronological appearance as a primary antagonist, setting the stage for his historical conflict with Albus Dumbledore.

• J.K. Rowling's decision to write the screenplay herself, rather than hand it over to an adapter like with the original Harry Potter films, gave her direct creative control over the story's expansion (Pottermore).
• The final text of the published screenplay contains some scenes and dialogue that were trimmed or altered in the theatrical cut of the film, offering a slightly different experience for readers (film).
• Sequels to the story were released as * The Crimes of Grindelwald* (2018) and * The Secrets of Dumbledore* (2022), with their own screenplays also published by Little, Brown and Scholastic.