Variety is reporting that the first film in the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series will be released on November 18th 2016. Cast and a director still have not been announced but as we’ve reported in the past, J.K. Rowling is writing the screenplay and David Heyman is producing.

Warner Bros. topper Kevin Tsujihara revealed in March that the studio was following in the footsteps of “The Hobbit” franchise with three “megamovies” for “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.”

Tsujihara persuaded Rowling last year to revive the Harry Potter movie magic by adapting her Hogwarts textbook “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” for the big screen. Rowling wrote the 54-page book in 2001 between publication of the fourth and fifth Potter books.

Set initially in New York about seven decades before the start of the Harry Potter story, the films will follow magizoologist Newt Scamander. They’re not prequels or sequels, but an “extension of the wizarding world.”

Filed Under: Fantastic Beasts Films, Harry Potter Films