Warner Bros. announced today that they have struck a deal with Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling for a new movie series based in the Harry Potter world.  Rowling will make her debut as a screenwriter for this new movie series, the first film of which is being adapted from Harry Potter textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander with a foreword by Albus Dumbledore.

Warner Bros., makers of the highly successful eight Harry Potter movies which are the highest grossing film series of all time, approached Rowling with the idea to start a new film series based on the Harry Potter textbook in hopes to capitalize on the vastly popular children series.

“Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.” 

 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,” Rowling said.

“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.”

Warner already has plans to develop Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a video game and incorporate it into the existing theme parks as well as Rowling’s Pottermore website.

Source: Warner Bros Press Release