Fantastic Beasts and Where to find them takes us to a new era in J.K. Rowling's Wizarding World, decades before the events of Harry Potter and half a world away. The screenplay, and film, marks the screenwriting debut of J.K. Rowling. Her script was inspired by the Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, penned by her character Newt Scamander. There are growing dangers in the wizarding world of 1926 New York. Something mysterious is leaving a path of destruction in the streets, threatening to expose the magical world. And the powerful, dark wizard Gellert Grindlewald, after wreaking havoc in Europe, has slipped away... and is nowhere to be found. Unaware of the rising tensions, magizoologist Newt Scamander arrives in the city nearing the end of a global excursion to research and rescue magical creatures, some of which are safely housed in his battered leather briefcase. Potential disaster strikes when Newt's case is inadvertently opened by an unsuspecting No-Maj. Can Newt get all of his creatures back safely before the city ignites into war?