Katherine Waterston to cast spells in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

By Caitlin PenzeyMoog | June 15, 2015 | 7:10pm

Aux Features Film

Now that Eddie Redmayne has been officially cast as the globe-trotting, monster-seeking, teakettle-wielding Newt Scamader, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them has found its second lead with Katherine Waterston. Waterston, who played off Joaquin Phoenix to great acclaim in 2014’s Inherent Vice, will join the magizoologist for the first installment of Fantastic Beasts, which is planned to be a trilogy. Waterston will play the witch Porpentina (Tina for short), and according to Variety, will meet Scamander when he’s in New York City.

Queenie, Tina’s younger sister, and Jacob, Scamander’s rival, have yet to be cast. Fantastic Beasts is the first screenwriting effort from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and David Yates will return to the magical world to direct. The films follow Scamander’s adventures in America in the ’30s as he finds and researches fantastic beasts, penning the textbook Harry Potter and his friends use at Hogwarts seven decades later. The film is scheduled for a November 18, 2016 release.