Who said spinoffs have to look and feel like the properties that inspired them? Although Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them will soon take us back into the wizard world created in by J.K. Rowling, the film already looks noticeably different than anything seen in the Harry Potter franchise. According to Eddie Redmayne, there’s a reason for that aesthetic difference, and it’s firmly rooted in the films 1920s setting. He explained:
The first thing that’s different is it’s set in the 1920s, and it’s set in New York. And it’s this amazing age of the Jazz Age and Prohibition, and there’s a kind of vibrancy to that place at that time. But also there are rumblings of this huge war of good versus evil going on. And this Englishman, this English wizard, arrives in New York, and the beasts getting out sort of sets into motion a whole load of things. There’s that kind of epic J.K. Rowling start of a massive battle thing going on.
Eddie Redmayne opened up regarding the upcoming release of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them to EW at PopFest in Los Angeles, and addressed how the film sets itself apart from the Harry Potter franchise. In his own opinion, Fantastic Beasts really stands on its own merit because the setting and aesthetic of this new corner of the wizard world is so fundamentally different from what we’ve seen before. The film leans heavily into the trappings of the Jazz Age, and really embraces the classic visual elements of the era. In simple terms: it’s a stylish setting that harbors a classic battle between good and evil.
By contrast, the Harry Potter franchise always embraced a somewhat blander view of the muggle world. Instead of the Prohibition era, the original Harry Potter continuity took place in England in the 1990s, and as such the visuals were strikingly different from New York’s period setting in Fantastic Beasts. These two franchises still very much take place in the same universe, but the overall setting and vibe associated with Fantastic Beasts is a bit more exotic than Harry Potter.
However, Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts both certainly embrace the idea of a hidden war lurking beneath the surface of the setting. In the same way that the Harry Potter films slowly teased the eventual reveal of Voldemort, Fantastic Beasts will also depict how the events set into motion by Newt Scamander will spiral out of control, resulting in untold consequences.
CinemaBlend will bring you all of the latest and greatest details pertaining to the upcoming release of Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them as more information becomes available to us. The first installment in the Harry Potter spin-off series will hit theaters later this month on November 18. [Source]
