With November right around the corner, the release of the highly anticipated movie ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ is coming ever closer. The movie, set to release on November 18th, tells the story of writer Newt Scamander and his adventures in New York seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school. The in-universe study book was previously published alongside the two other published in-universe Books, ‘The Tales of Beetle the Bard’ and ‘Quidditch Through the Ages’.
The screenplay
Besides the release of the movie coming closer, its screenplay will be published on the day of the movie’s release.
The official covers have recently been revealed by publishers including UK publisher Little Brown and US publisher Scholastic. The cover of the screenplay is designed by MinaLima, the graphic design duo who produced maps, signs, props and designs for all of the Harry Potter films and designed the artwork for the newly released Pottermore Presents eBooks.
This year's Harry Potter content
This year was a good year for the Harry Potter fans with Harry Potter and the Cursed Child coming to theatres, the rehearsal script getting published, and the movie and its screenplay set to release in November. Not only that there is much more to come with Fantastic Beasts’ publishing programme which includes behind-the-scenes, a poster book and more.
In addition to these publications, throughout the year J.K. Rowling has produced content for Pottermore, the official Harry Potter website. Including the introduction to the wizarding world of the United States and their wizarding school, and a trio of eBook shorts called Pottermore Presents.
Although lots of fans were happy with the new content and the continuation of the story, there are still a lot of fans who see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child more as fan Fiction than an actual continuation of the story.
The rehearsal script was not well-received by everyone; with the story not being the only problem but there are hints to a gay relationship merely to reel readers in and then forcing it out of the story. Yet, even though the story was not well-received by everyone, it did still overtake Fifty Shades of Grey to become the fastest-selling book this decade; selling over 680,000 copies in the UK in only three days.
The question rests, will the screenplays of the sequels of this new trilogy also be published?
It wouldn’t be a surprise if they will be published when sales for the first screenplay are high enough. Considering all the extra content that is scheduled to get published this year for the first movie, it is likely that there will be a publishing programme for the sequels as well. Whether this will be the screenplays or behind-the-scenes content is still unknown but it would not come as a surprise to the fans if extra content would be published concerning the other two movies.