Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: All you need to know about the upcoming film

Harry Potter has become a global sensation since the first book of the series released in 1997 and the first film in 2007. Since then Hogwarts and Dumbledore have taken front and center-stage in the lives of bibliophiles all over the world. After the eight Harry Potter films, Fantastic Beasts will mark the return of the Potter franchise on screen and will also mark Rowling’s screenwriting debut. At first, the thought of making Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them into a film might have seemed like a ludicrous idea since it was released in 2001 as a textbook with footnotes from our favourite trio on the side. (Harry, Hermione and Ron), but the film’s trailers don’t cease to surprise us. Here is what we know about the film so far: [caption id=“attachment_3108110” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Image courtesy: Facebook[/caption] What the film is about: Eddie Redmayne, who we know so well from Theory of Everything and Danish Girl, brings alive the character of Newt Scamander, an English wizard who’s been traveling the world, collecting magical creatures for conservation in his seemingly ordinary suitcase. The Hufflepuff, who openly admits he annoys people, has only begun drafting the tome that will decades later be a Hogwarts requirement. We see him in his early twenties stuck in the bygone era of New York with undercurrents of Jazz Age glamour and underground crime. He teams up with disgraced Auror Porpetina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), her telepathic sister Queenie (Alison Sudol), and a muggle named Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler) to round up the beasts who have have snuck out of Scamander’s suitcase and are creating chaos throughout the city. Watch out for the six magical creatures: The film will mark the debut of six extraordinary feats of VFX, the newly introduced fantastic beasts that escape from Scamander’s suitcase. Also Read: Fantastic Beasts: Details of six creatures from Newt Scamander's briefcase revealed Guess who’s back? Johnny Depp makes a guest appearance as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, the dark wizard that Dumbledore defeated famously. Depp will reprise his role in a larger part in the upcoming sequel releasing next year. The important subtext Rowling has long been a champion of outsiders facing intolerance, segregation and demonisation, which is obvious from her books which are an allegory of the racial and xenophobic intolerance she came across in her home country of Britain. This film too has a subtext that artfully mirrors the situation in America right now. With Trump becoming the presidential-elect, we have seen a rise in xenophobia and racial intolerance, and the film shows a world where outsiders (witches) and immigrants (the escaped beasts) are not welcome in America. The amazing super-villains  Colin Farrell plays the main antagonist in the universe as Percival Graves, the head of Magical Security of the MACUSA ( Magical Congress of the United States of America) and a powerful Auror. Joining him is Ezra Miller or ‘The Flash’ to all the DC fans who have already tuned in to the Justice League trailer. Ezra Miller plays Credence Barebone, an ally to Percival Graves. If nothing else, the film seems to be worth a watch for Harry Potter fans who want to keep the nostalgia alive.