Colin Farrell Joins Harry Potter Spinoff ‘Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them’: What We Know About The Movie So Far

Colin Farrell is off to visit the wizarding world of Harry Potter! The True Detective actor has reportedly joined the cast of the highly-anticipated Harry Potter spin-off movie, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Perhaps Colin will trade hunting down criminals for hunting down Clabberts.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Colin Farrell isn’t playing a mere Muggle in the Fantastic Beasts movie — he’s been cast as a wizard named Graves. His character will encounter beast seeker Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) in 1920s New York. One of Farrell’s recent movies, Winter’s Tale, was also a magic-filled movie set in the big city, and it featured a flying white horse that Scamander would have loved to study.

As Harry Potter fans know, Newt Scamander is the fictional author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a textbook about magical creatures. He’s a magizoologist who travels the world in search of Snidgets, Porlocks, Bowtruckles, and Billywigs. Warner Bros. is giving Fantastic Beasts the trilogy treatment, but there’s no word on whether Farrell will appear in all three films.

Colin Farrell’s character does share his name with one wizard that Harry Potter fans have already met. Merton Graves is a member of The Weird Sisters band, and he plays the cello. Many wizards in J.K. Rowling’s books are related, so there’s a good chance that Merton and Colin’s character share blood.

According to the Huffington Post, J.K. Rowling has already hinted that most of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie will take place in New York. In 2014, she tweeted that something will keep Scamander in New York for longer than he intends to stay.

Newt only meant to stay in New York for a few hours. Circumstances ensured that he remained… for the length of a movie, anyway. X

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 7, 2014

Entertainment Weekly reports that J.K. Rowling has revealed that some of the Fantastic Beasts characters were educated at an American version of Hogwarts. However, the author informed fans that the school isn’t located in New York.

.@tannerfbowen No, but he’s going to meet people who were educated at [name] in [not New York].

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 6, 2015

Colin Farrell and Eddie Redmayne will be joined by a cast that includes Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller, and Alison Sudol. According to Variety, Waterson is playing a witch named Tina, short for Porpentina. She eventually marries Newt, and it sounds like the future couple will meet for the first time in New York. Sudol will play Tina’s sister Queenie, and the Wrap reports that Fogler’s character is a muggle who befriends Scamander during his New York visit. Few details have been released about Ezra Miller’s role, but some reports say he’s playing a wizard named Kredan. Rowling is penning the Fantastic Beasts screenplay, and David Yates is directing the movie.

As the Inquisitr previously reported, Warner Bros. held an open casting call for one Fantastic Beasts role last month. The production company was searching for a young actress to play a “haunted young girl” named Modesty. The cast will include a few other younger characters.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is slated to hit theaters next November. Do you think Colin Farrell will make a great wizard?

[Image credit: Andrew Goodman/Getty]