Warner Brothers Studios has confirmed that the Harry Potter-spinoff "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" has started filming.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the movie is currently being shot in a WB facility in Leavesden, England, where the original eight films of the Harry Potter series were done.
The movie, which will be helmed by previous Potter director David Yates, and written by billionaire author J.K. Rowling in her first screenwriting venture, will be set in the 1920s. The movie will also feature Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, a magizoologist who makes a pit stop in the Big Apple in his journey to document the wizarding and magical creatures.
The cast includes Katherine Waterston as Porpentina, Alison Sudol as Queenie, Dan Fogler as Jacob, Ezra Miller as Credence, Samantha Morton as Mary Lou, Colin Farrell as Graves, and Faith Wood-Blagrove as Modesty.
According to The Business Standard, Waterston's character is an American witch married to Scamander, and is the sister of Queenie (Alison Sudol).
Rowling has also released a tidbit of information about the film on her Twitter page.
"I feel I owe you a bit of #FantasticBeasts information after you all got behind @Scotlandteam," she wrote in a tweet, after the rugby match between the national teams of Ireland and Scotland.
She disclosed that Queenie and Porpentina's last name is Goldstein. When asked if they are related to a background character in the books named Anthony Goldstein, she answered in a tweet, saying, "Yes (but distant)."
David Heyman will be back as an executive producer in the spinoff films after working on Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity," and on the British-French comedy film "Paddington."
The movie will be released in theaters on Nov. 18, 2016. The film will be followed by a second installment on Nov. 16, 2018, while the third installment will come in 2020.
