Warner Bros. announced recently that Tony Award winner Dan Folger will be joining the cast of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” alongsideEddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller and Alison Sudol. Folger will be playing Jacob, a non-magical character (no word on whether Jacob will be a muggle or a squib) that Scamander befriends during his adventures in New York.
Folger is known for his Tony Award winning performance inThe 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,as well as appearing in Balls of Fury,The Good Wife, The Goldbergs and Hannibal. He also did voice work in Horton Hears A Who and Kung Fu Panda.
Left “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” (Bloomsbury Publishing), Right Katherine Waterston (Photo by New Cinema)
Newt Scamander finally has his counterpart in the upcoming Harry Potter spin-off “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” Warner Bros. announced June 15 that Katherine Waterston will play the role of Tina, or Porpentina, a witch who resides in the U.S.. Porpentina meets Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, in New York during his exhibition to locate and document the world’s magical creatures. Porpentina is described as “grounded” and will be Newt’s love interest SPOILER ALERT and later his wife.
Harry Potter fans have been going nuts over the film ever since it was announced that J.K. Rowling herself would be penning the script back in 2013. There is little known about the actual plot except that it will focus on Hufflepuff Newt Scamander’s journey as he travels the world writing his magizoology book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them which would become a required textbook in Hogwarts. J.K. Rowling wrote the actual textbook for the charity Comic Relief in 2001. At least part of the film will take place in the U.S., specifically New York, and there will be at least a mention of an American wizarding school. It will take place 70 years before Harry’s journey. David Yates will return to direct the film and it will be produced by David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter screenwriter Steven Kloves and Lionel Wigram.
Waterston is known best for her roles in Boardwalk Empire where she played Emma Harrow and Inherent Vice as Shasta Fay Hepworth. The British actress is also known for her roles in The Babysitters, Micheal Clayton and Robot and Frank. She will be playing Christian Brennan in Steve Jobs directed by Danny Boyle.
There is no further casting news as of yet, but Rowling reported on Twitter that she “couldn’t be happier” with Waterston as Porpentina.
After a few months of being on the rumor mill, Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables, The Theory of Everything) has been officially cast as Newt Scamander in the film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
The movie will follow Scamander on his adventures locating the Fantastic Beasts for his book that eventually becomes text for Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Fred Weasley, and other Hogwarts students.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set to release in theaters November 18th, 2016.
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