It’s been four years since we have last heard from the Harry Potter world and let’s be honest, it’s been pretty sad. That all changed though on December 15th when the world was graced with a glimpse into the Wizarding World's version of 1920’s New York City. For those who haven’t seen the trailer, take a look!
Amazing, right? Now, I’ll break some things down for you about the movie and trailer.
The movie is based around the informational book of "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" by Newt Scamander (aka, J.K. Rowling). I’ll admit that when I heard they were making a movie on the book that I was a smidge skeptical. The book goes through an alphabetical listing of all the magical creatures that are known of in the Harry Potter universe. These include dragons, merpeople, hippogriffs, basilisks, and even a whole bunch of creatures never seen in the movies, or books, before. Magically though, Warner Bros. was able to turn an informational book into not just one movie but a projected trilogy of movies. (I’ve read the book too; it’s a fun read, by the way.)
So let’s do a brief rundown of the characters.
We’ve got the protagonist, Newt Scamander. Newt is a magizoologist who works for the Ministry of Magic in Britain (I’m sure that sounds familiar). Newt’s job is to collect information on the magical creatures of the world and document them…but that’s not all he did. That roaring briefcase he had? Yeah, that actually contains many different magical creatures. And as we can see in the trailer, the briefcase seems to have its flaws.
Next, we have the love interest, Porpentina "Tina" Goldstein. She is the one in the beginning of the trailer who, for some unknown reason, has Scamander’s briefcase. She is described as being rather down-to-earth and grounded, but also someone who fights for what is right. Am I the only one who thinks that a basilisk roaming through the sewers or a Hungarian Horntail attacking the Empire State Building may not be the most ‘right’ thing in the world? I’m interested to see how her and Newt (who she refers to as Mr. Scamander) develop any sort of relationship.
The last character I’ll inform you about is the one we know the least about: Jacob Kowalski. Kowalski is a No-Maj (the American version of muggle) who is accidentally introduced to the magical world by meeting Newt and seeing all the trouble he’s caused. Now, to bring out my inner Harry Potter nerd, this is actually illegal for Newt to do. Due to a law known as the International Statute of Secrecy, it’s forbidden to reveal the magical world to a muggle (or No-Maj). I’m actually beyond interested to see how this law affects Newt on the basis of Jacob as well as him accidentally letting loose magical creatures in New York City.
Now, if you will all excuse me, I’m whipping out the time turner so that I can jump to November 2016 and see this undoubtedly awesome movie already!
