‘Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them’ Director David Yates’ Vision Of ‘Charming’ Story [Video]


Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them promises to deliver Harry Potter fans back into the grand Wizarding World of author J.K. Rowling’s imagination, but, even though Rowling also penned the script for the film, this isn’t solely her own vision. David Yates, who joined the previous Rowling based franchise with 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and stayed with the saga through the final film, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2(2011), explains why he ultimately decided to return for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The Final Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them Trailer Is Magical

In sharing the latest and final trailer for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Glamour magazine calls attention to the polished 1920s style, phenomenal displays of magic, and a multitude of Colin Farrell appearances. Certainly, the latest offering from Yates and Rowling does have all of that, but this trailer also seems to give hints that Fantastic Beasts is so much more than the story of Newt Scamander and his escaped beasts.

Even this all too brief Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trailer indicates that there is more afoot in New York City than the bungled handling of magical creatures suddenly loosed on the city and the no maj population. In accidentally releasing his creatures, Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, finds himself thrown into the middle of some kind of power struggle within New York’s magical community, all while struggling to keep the existence of magic a secret from the oblivious no maj population.

Also revealed in this Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trailer is the cinematic beauty of Yates’ 1920s New York City, which seems both authentic and polished from the outfits worn by the actors to the architecture and classic automobiles. The influx of magical creatures into this bustling city of industrial growth exposes a clashing of worlds, yet isn’t so surreal that it can keep the viewers from losing themselves in a grand, new J.K. Rowling story.

Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them Director David Yates On Coming Back To The Harry Potter World

It wasn’t necessarily a given assumption that David Yates would be returning to the Wizarding World, just because he has had the enjoyable experience of working on past J.K. Rowling projects. Yates told Collider that, while he loved the idea of returning for more magic, he knew he really had to love the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them project to do it the justice it deserved. For that reason, Yates says he was nervous about reading the new script.

“I was really nervous ’cause I had to really fall in love with it to come back,” says the Fantastic Beasts director. “And I didn’t know if I could come back. And then, it was just the most delightful read. It was charming, moving, tender.”

David says that one of the most exciting aspects of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has been the freshness of telling a new story. Coming to Harry Potter, the stage had already been set with those characters and the world in which they lived, but, for Fantastic Beasts, David says he has essentially been able to create an entirely new world. Placing the story in New York City of the 20s also allowed the director to explore the added aspect of doing a period piece, though a fictional period piece in which magic is a real experience.

There are more reasons Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has such a fresh feel. Yates says the best thing about this film and the planned sequels is that they’re not adapted from Rowling novels. Instead, J.K. (Jo, to Yates and others close to her) has created this story specifically for the films, so audience expectation is limited by what has been revealed in the trailers.

“The only limit is Jo’s imagination, which is boundless. And she’s taking us all on quite an extraordinary journey with this story…But it’s very exciting not to have people’s own, sort of, versions of the film in their head,” says Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them‘s David Yates. “They’ve never met Newt Scamander before, in book form and then, well, they haven’t obviously in that little book, but, there’s something really marvelous about introducing them to all those characters and this new world.”

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will see a November 18 theatrical release.

[Featured Image by Warner Bros.]

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