'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' Potter book will be a film trilogy

The film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” originally a fake textbook by Rowling based in Harry Potter’s world, will be a trilogy, according to Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara.

Tsujihara told the New York Times that the movie version of Rowling’s story, the screenplay for which is being written by the “Potter” author, would consist of three parts.

“Fantastic” was originally released in 2001 and the film trilogy will focus on the book’s fictional author, Newt Scamander. The story will be set in New York and will take place long before Harry arrives on the scene, with events unspooling 70 years before the “Potter” series.

The New York Times gives Newt’s job title as “magizoologist.” When the film adaptation of “Fantastic” was announced, Warner Bros. said the story would focus on “the adventures of the book’s fictitious author, Newt Scamander.”

A trilogy seems to be the default setting for both literary sci-fi and fantasy series as well as their film adaptations. The tradition, of course, goes all the way back to J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” series and recent young adult series that were written in trilogies include the “Divergent” series by Veronica Roth and the “Hunger Games” books by Suzanne Collins, though Collins’s last book is being split into two movies.