Harry Potter

Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) may be the main character of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but let’s be honest, the real reason we’re going to this movie is to see just how fantastic those titular beasts are. Last year, Warner Bros. revealed the names of a few of the creatures we’ll see, and recently we got a few quick looks at them in some of the new trailers, but a new TV spot has the most (and most fantastic) beast footage yet.

Leading up to the 15th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on November 16, we’re looking back on the series and rewatching one movie each week to see how they hold up.

Love all things Halloween but can't stand scary movies? Try these 25 magical, mildly spooky and family-friendly movies on for fun size.

Warner Bros. is seriously banking on a resurgence of Harry Potter fever. At a fan event in London on Thursday, J.K. Rowling herself confirmed that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which hasn’t even come out in theaters yet, will be a five-film franchise.

Thursday brought some big news for Harry Potter fans, namely that a five new movies are on the way. During a Global Fan Event for ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,’ J.K. Rowling announced that the Harry Potter prequel spinoff will be followed by four sequels, and that she’s already completed the script for the second film. The event featured a live-streamed panel with the movie’s cast, then afterwards showed the audience an exclusive sneak peek of the new movie.

The very first Harry Potter movie opened 15 years ago next month. Fifteen years. A lot has changed in blockbuster movies over the past decade and a half – superheroes are now front and center, CG has advanced to remarkable degrees, and remakes, prequels and spin-offs are filling the movie theaters. But J.K. Rowling’s magical world was one of the most original series of its time. Before Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone opened on November 18, 2001, the only major movies for kids born in the ‘80s and ‘90s were animated films from Disney and Dreamworks. The 21st Century also brought with it the Star Wars prequels and the Lord of the Rings series, but Harry Potter introduced a whole new era of fantasy blockbusters for kids (Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass, Twilight, etc.). It gave millennials the first major family franchise of their generation.

Much of the appeal of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter website Pottermore lies in the extra bits the site dishes out from time to time, often from Rowling herself, as she expands on the Wizarding World’s universe. To prepare us all for the imminent Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, she’s published a few short histories of magic in America, where the film takes place. Today, she came out with another about the formation of MACUSA, the governing body of magic in the U.S., and how it fits in with American history as we know it.

We’ll be returning to J.K. Rowling’s magical world of wizards this November with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and to help get you in the proper spirit, Warner Bros. is re-releasing all eight of the Harry Potter films — in IMAX, no less. There is a catch, of course: The films will only screen for one week, so if you want to see Mr. Potter & Co. on the very-very-big screen, you might want to clear your calendar.

The 'Harry Potter' sister film will hit theaters on November 18.

Eddie Redmayne has some big shoes to fill as the face of the next installment in the Harry Potter franchise. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, if it does well, could launch another series of movies (and let’s be real, with fans as ravenous as Potterheads, there’s no way this movie is going to flop).

It’s a big day in the wizarding world of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which has revealed our first official look (first look ever, actually) at Ezra Miller’s mysterious character from the upcoming Harry Potter spinoff. But that’s not the only news, as the film has made a last-minute addition to the cast, with Mad Max: Fury Road star Zoe Kravitz joining the lineup in a small, but reportedly crucial role.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them hits theaters in November, returning Harry Potter fans to J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world — or a different corner of it, anyway. Warner Bros. brought the first film in their magical spinoff trilogy to Comic-Con 2016, where they debuted a rather, uh, fantastic new trailer featuring plenty of beasts, indeed.