The magical world of JK Rowling is back with an anticipated performance by Eddie Redmayne
Photos: © 2016 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts Publishing Rights © JKR.
Within the past two decades, author JK Rowling’s enchanting Harry Potter universe cast a lasting spell on the world that readers and audiences will not soon forget. Now, fans of all things witchcraft and wizardry are set to rediscover the magic of Rowling - and this time, it’s a movie in which the author has a heavy hand.
Unlike the main Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is reportedly not based on the existing novel by Rowling, but on an original script penned by Rowling herself. David Yates, who directed the final four Harry Potter films, returns to the helm for Fantastic Beasts.
Eddie’s victorious comeback
After delivering riveting performances in last year’s The Danish Girl and 2014’s The Theory of Everything – for which he bagged the Best Actor titles in the Academy and Golden Globe Awards – Redmayne returns in an anticipated eccentric role as Newt.
This also marks another type of comeback for Redmayne: A full-fledged leading part in the Harry Potter universe. The British actor revealed to Empire that he had always wanted to be in the film series, even going so far as to audition for the role of young Voldemort, or Tom Riddle.
Redmayne shares, “I actually auditioned to play Tom Riddle while I was at university. I properly failed and didn’t get a callback.” The role went to fellow English actor Frank Dillane.
He also wanted to be a Weasley, convinced that his hair has “a tinge of red”. He recalls, “Over the years, I always hoped I might be cast as a member of the Weasley family… A lot of my friends, like Domhnall Gleeson [Bill Weasley] and Rob Pattinson [Cedric Diggory], got their Harry Potter moment, but I never got mine.”
It seems that Redmayne’s coming back with the last laugh – that is, until he actually stepped on set. He admitted that he was overcome with “complete stage fright” when he picked up his first wand, although his “inner nine-year-old [was] having the best moment of his life”.
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