JK Rowling to script new wizard series

MANILA, Philippines – Something “fantastic” this way comes.

Get your cloaks and wands out of the closet, Potterheads, because the magic continues with “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the first of JK Rowling’s upcoming wizard-film projects with Warner Bros.

Inspired by Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbook of the same name, the film will feature the book’s fictitious author, Newt Scamander, 70 years before Potter’s time, according to a Facebook post by Rowling herself.

She said the project in discussion will be “neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world.”

Newt’s story, Rowling said, will start in New York, “70 years before Harry’s gets underway.”

The bestselling author said she had her hesitations, given her fondness for Newt Scamander as a character.

“I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of ‘Fantastic Beasts’, realized by another writer was difficult. Having lived for so long in my fictional universe, I feel very protective of it and I already knew a lot about Newt.”

“As hard-core Harry Potter fans will know, I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favourite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood.”

But creative juices were soon flowing and Rowling decided to take on the project herself, in what would be her screenwriting debut.

“As I considered Warners’ proposal, an idea took shape that I couldn’t dislodge. That is how I ended up pitching my own idea for a film to Warner Bros,” went her post. 

Rowling, who has sold more than 450 million copies of the Harry Potter books, has been keeping busy since the final novel in the series was published in 2007.

She published her first novel for adults, “The Casual Vacancy“, last year–and in July she was unmasked as the real author of critically acclaimed detective novel “The Cuckoo’s Calling“, by one Robert Galbraith.

READ: JK Rowling, sex, drugs and village politics

With an estimated fortune of £560 million ($885 million, 666 million euros) the former single mother is the 156th richest person in Britain, according to the Sunday Times Rich List. – With reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com

JK Rowling photo from Shutterstock