Five years since their last wizarding fix, Harry Potter fans now have not one, but two, fantastic films to look forward to.
Film bosses have announced that work on a darker sequel to upcoming flick Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is under way – before the new story has even hit the screens.
The first instalment in the Harry Potter spin-off, starring Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston and Ezra Miller, is out on November 18 and will mark J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut.
Based on her 2001 novel by the same name, the story follows Newt Scamander, a ‘magizoologist’ on a mission to catalogue other-worldy creatures in New York.
Warner Bros said the second outing for Redmayne’s Scamander will also be penned by the author and is expected to have a “darker edge”, but fans will have to hold on for two years before the sequel reaches cinemas on November 16, 2018.
The prospect of a burgeoning Fantastic Beasts franchise to follow the eight-part Harry Potter series will be magical for Rowling, who was named the world’s third richest author this week.
With an estimated £580 million fortune, Rowling made £14.2 million in the past year that saw the opening of her two-part West End debut, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child.