With Warner Bros. Pictures working on ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’, it was recently confirmed that Eddie Redmayne has signed on to play Newt Scamander in the highly anticipated movie. Now, the film has found its female lead as well.
Katherine Waterston has been cast as Porpentina, more known as Tina, a witch who resides in the USA and meets Newt during one of his visits in new York City while searching for magical creatures.
Waterston rose to fame after starring in the crime drama ‘Inherent Vice’ by Paul Thomas Anderson, although she made several appearances in ‘Boardwalk Empire’ as well. The actress is also set to portray Chrisann Brennan in the upcoming biopic ‘Steve Jobs’ helmed by Danny Boyle and also stars Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogen and Kate Winslet.
Other actresses who made it to the top list for the role of Tina included Saoirse Ronan (‘The Lovely Bones’, ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’), Dakota Fanning (‘Effie Gray’, ‘Very Good Girls’) and Lili Simmons (‘Banshee’, ‘The Guilty Innocent’).
Previous reports claimed that Waterston had been considered for the role of Queenie, Tina’s older sister, along with Kate Upton (‘The Three Stooges’, ‘The Other Woman’) and Elizabeth Debicki (‘The Great Gatsby’, ‘The Man from U.N.C.L.E.). Such report could have been an assumption due to the fact that the 35-year-old actress was the older star among the other contenders for the role of Tina.
Based on a script written by ‘Harry Potter’ creator J.K. Rowling, the movie will be helmed by David Yates, who previously worked in a number of ‘Potter’ films. It also marks the award-winning author’s first time to write a feature film script.
"Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world," Rowling explained during the announcement of the spinoff movie.
Set for a premiere on Nov. 18, 2016, the film focuses on a story drawn out from Harry Potter’s Hogwarts textbook ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ and its fictitious author, Newt Scamander.
With the story being set in the wizarding world as well, it is expected to shed light on various magical characters and creatures, as suggested by the book’s title, with which some of these beings will be familiar to fans who have already read the ‘Harry Potter’ books and watched its corresponding films.
Scamander’s story begins in New York, at least seventy years before Potter’s story came to be.
“The experience of conjuring up these worlds is such fun. So to do it with [Rowling] and with Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram is involved too, and with David Yates, and Stuart Craig will be designing it – it’s great. It’s exciting. And it’s a great world to return to,” producer David Heyman shared.
The second and third installments in the ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ series will also make their way to theaters on Nov. 16, 2018 and Nov. 20, 2020, respectively.
