Yeah, you read that right. She’s writing a prequel movie based on _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_, a book that appears in Harry Potter.

Press Release via [Slashfilm](http://www.slashfilm.com/warner-bros-announces-harry-potter-spinoff-film-j-k-rowling-to-script/)

> “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” will be an original story and will mark Rowling’s screenwriting debut. It is planned as the first picture in a new film series. Set in the wizarding world, the story will feature magical creatures and characters, some of which will be familiar to devoted Harry Potter fans.

> “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,” said Rowling. “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.” (Expanded Rowling quote at bottom of release.)

I guess the message to take away from this is that if you can’t cash in on adapting a new young adult book series the best idea is to just figure a way to cash in on an already successful one. Right? Right.

I’ve no idea if this’ll be any good but hopefully it will at least be interesting. Although, why does everything have to be the start of a series these days? Why can’t they just say “we had an idea to make a movie and we’re going to make that one movie and make it really well”?

Oh wait. Hollywood. Right.