We now return to Michael Fiorilla and Christina Harrington’s magically-divined speculation on casting and story for the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them motion picture, already in progess. Read part one here.
Dream Cast
Could one of these awesome hairdos (left to right: Luke Treadaway, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) be our Newt Scamander?
Fio: I don’t know if I can narrow it down to just one for this, so I’m going to have to compromise and split my vote. On one hand, I’ve got Luke Treadaway and on the other, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett. Both for similar reasons. They’ve got got the sort of lean, eager look about them that I imagine Newt embodying. When I picture Scamander as I’d want him to be played in the films, it’s sort of like Steve Irwin by way of David Tennant, if that makes any sense, and I think both of them would kill it in that role. Also, they’ve both got some well loved genre pieces in their repertoires (Attack the Block and Misfits respectively) so we know that they can carry the weirdness, but moreso than that, they can sell the weirdness as poignant, which I hope is going to be integral to making these films a success.
Colin Morgan and his cheekbones.
Christina: And my vote is going for Colin Morgan, who is well known for playing, well, Merlin in Merlin. You all know Merlin: he used to be the most well-known wizard before Harry waltzed in and took that title. Poor Merlin never stood a chance. Anyways! Maybe I’m seeing Colin Morgan in this role because he has experience with the whole magic thing, but he, too, has got that gangly, just-grew-into-my-elbows-and-knees look that I imagine a young Newt Scamander having. Plus he looks the exact opposite of cool, which I imagine Newt being. In my mind Newt Scamander is a proper nerd, in the sense that his passion and love for something sort of overwhelms other, less passionate, people. That and he allows himself to become lost in this project of his: documenting every magical creature in the world. I think that energy and nerdy passion could be brought to life by Morgan, Merlin experience or no.
Pitch
Fio: Newt Scamander, fresh-faced graduate of Hogwarts and newest field liaison for the Ministry of Magic’s Department of Magical Creatures takes to cataloging the strange beasts that inhabit the new world. Along the way, however, he becomes caught up in stopping a group of nefarious poachers capturing rare and endangered magical creatures and selling them to listless aristocrats with no clue as to how to care for the dangerous creatures they’ve purchased.
Christina: Newt Scamander has just graduated from Hogwarts, top of his class, and while he has a good job waiting for him in the Office of Muggle Affairs, Newt wants what most new graduates want: something new and different. Fueled by his passion for magical creatures and savings from three summers of working at Flourish and Blotts, young Newt sets out across the pond where he embarks on a road trip full of the true weirdness of wizarding Americana, including those creatures and dark magics unique only to the U.S.
Who and what do you want to see in Fantastic Beasts? Tell us in the comments section!
Deadshirt Assistant Editor. Writer. MFA. Find her fiction in Crack the Spine and Eunoia Review.
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Fio, your pitch made me think of Ace Ventura with hippogriffs. And I would kill to see that.