New ‘Fantastic Beasts’ Featurette Introduces Us To Ilvermorny, the American Hogwarts
We’ve still got months until ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ hits the silver screen but we can’t bloody wait.
Pottermore, the digital heart of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, has published a featurette video, introducing us to the North American Hogwarts equivalent, ‘Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’. They certainly know how to tease us.
The epic animated clip gives us a first taste of the history behind the school which will host Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, an expert on magical creatures. We’re putting two and two together here – but it also seems to give us a hint at the main villain.
Eddie Redmayne in a scene from the first trailer.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE – it came alongside several new posts on the Pottermore site, with backstory on how Ilvermorny was founded by a young Irish girl Isolt Sayre and names of its four houses, named from magical creatures:
- Horned Serpent – a ‘great horned river serpent with a jewel set into its forehead’
- Pukwudgie – ‘a short, grey-faced, large-eared creature’
- Thunderbird – a creature that ‘can create storms as it flies’
- Wampus – ‘a magical, panther-like creature that is fast, strong and almost impossible to kill’
Isolt was raised by her aunt Gormlaith Gaunt. That’s a name you might remember because it also belongs to Voldemort’s relatives, the ones that made him a descendant of Slytherin.
In addition to Eddie Redmayne in the lead role, the Fantastic Beasts cast also includes Colin Farrell, Dan Fogler, Carmen Ejogo, Ezra Miller, Ron Perlman, Jon Voight, Gemma Chan, Samantha Morton, and Alison Sudol. They’re all under the direction of Harry Potter franchise helmer David Yates with an original script by none other than J.K. Rowling herself. It’s not a one off either – J.K. Rowling has announced that Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them will be a trilogy. Strap yourselves in!