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‘Harry Potter’ Spin-Off To Star Oscar Winner Eddie Redmayne

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 05:29 PST, May 16, 2015

Harry Potter fans have been begging for more news from the wizarding world ever since the seventh Harry Potter book and the eighth Harry Potter movie were released. And while J.K. Rowling has all but dismissed the possibility of a Harry Potter sequel or prequel, that doesn’t mean that she has left the wizarding world alone altogether.

J.K. Rowling spoke with Today‘s Matt Lauer in April, 2015, during which she was specifically asked about the possibility of an eighth Harry Potter book.

“I’ve always said, I’m not going to say I definitely won’t. Because I don’t see why I should say that. But I think, Harry Potter 8, as in what happened next to Harry, Ron and Hermione, I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

This came after rumors and speculations circled worldwide in early March 2015, following a cryptic and rather teasing tweet from J.R. Rowling.

J.K. has been keeping herself busy, though, and has recently completed the film script for her Harry Potter spin-off movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. We reported last month on early rumours that Eddie Redmayne may be cast in the lead role in the film, and these rumors have now been confirmed. It seems that Redmayne was informally offered the role of lead character Newt Scamander months ago, however the Oscar-winning actor refused to make a commitment until he had read the full script, written by J.K. Rowling herself.

With the script now finalized, Eddie Redmayne has confirmed that he is happy to play the role and is now in negotiations to formalize the contract. Redmayne is going from strength to strength, having won an Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards for his role as Stephen Hawking in the film The Theory of Everything.

While taking place in the same wizarding world, the new Harry Potter spin-off is set seventy years before Harry Potter’s time, so it is not a prequel in that none of the Harry Potter characters will be making an appearance. As Vanity Fair reported, J.K. has referred to it as “an extension of the wizarding world“, and not a prequel. However, as reported by the Daily Mail, J.K. Rowling did joke in an interview with Emma Watson in 2014 that she would love for herself and the three main Harry Potter cast members to play cameo roles in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

“I really want you, Dan and Rupert in really heavy make-up in the background of a scene in Fantastic Beasts, and I’ll join you. We’ll sit in a bar room having a laugh for an afternoon, and then we can see if anyone can spot us. I personally would like to be in drag, just to make sure no-one can spot me at all!”

The new Harry Potter spin-off is based on the book of the same name that J.K. Rowling published in 2001, and which also featured in the Harry Potter books as a textbook referred to by the students at Hogwarts.

[Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images]

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