Fresh off his oscar wins for the astounding Gravity, former Harry Potter (Prisoner of Azkaban) director Alfonso Cuaron is rumored to be directing Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, a spinoff film based on one of the wizarding student’s textbooks in J.K. Rowling’s series.  We know the script for Fantastic Beasts is written by J.K. herself, and though the story takes place in the same universe as Harry Potter, it’s set in an earlier time period and doesn’t involve any of the main characters from the series.  Both Collider and Moviepilot are running this early rumor.

Personally, Azkaban is my favorite of the films, aside from the visuals in the final two with the battle for Hogwarts raging.  I can’t wait to see how this project pans out; who they cast, who might make cameos.  Newt Scamander (the author of the textbook in the film) was born in 1897 and the official Potter Wiki page says: “In 1918, Augustus Worme of Obscurus Books commissioned Scamander to write the first edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Scamander, earning only two Sickles a week working at the Ministry, jumped at the chance for extra money and the opportunity to spend his summers travelling the world.”

J.K. Rowling’s official description of the upcoming film’s story:

“Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.”

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will open in theaters on November 18, 2016, so filming will likely get underway sometime early next year.