Documentary Format Was Considered for Fantastic Beasts

Producer David Heyman revealed that the original plans for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them took the story in a very different direction.

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Warner Bros. had a vast amount of source material to draw from when they took on the Harry Potter film franchise in the early 2000s. Although Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes place in the same universe, the production company doesn’t have the same advantage. Instead of a seven-book series, Warner Bros. has only magizoologist Newt Scamander’s guidebook to magical creatures.

Fortunately, they also have J.K. Rowling play a pivotal role in the new franchise as the screenwriter. Had this author-turned-screenwriter not joined the team, it sounds like Fantastic Beasts could have been quite a different movie than what we’re expecting in November.

Last December, Collider interviewed producer David Heyman, who admitted that the film we’re getting wasn’t always headed in that direction.

"“We were thinking about what to do and Lionel Wigram, who was one of the producers on this and who was the executive who I first sent Harry Potter way back in the beginning of 1997… He was thinking about what we could do and he had the idea of maybe doing a documentary about Newt.”"

Image via Warner Brothers Pictures

A magical documentary, you say? Hmmm. Personally, I’m skeptical as to how well that would have gone over with fans. Documentaries don’t appeal to everyone, and even a Potter-style one would have likely raised some eyebrows. No doubt the film would have been a financial success regardless, but it may have lacked that signature Potterverse feeling.

As fate would have it, Rowling wasn’t on board with a documentary. She already had her own ideas in mind. Heyman said:

"“[S]he had this whole idea in some form. I mean, it’s changed and developed over the course of the year and a half and two years that’s been going on. But she knows how each part connects with her universe. She knows the history of magic before we were with Newt Scamander…. [S]he has it all figured out in some way. So, when she started, she showed us the script and [we] went, ‘Whew. Thank you.'”"

If that last bit is any indication, it seems that the team at Warner Bros. wasn’t completely sold on the documentary idea themselves. Of course, Heyman broaches an important point–Rowling knows this universe backwards and forwards. Trying to create an extension of it without her input was doomed to fail. It may be simple enough to imagine what Harry and the gang got up to “Nineteen Years Later,” but to imagine a storyline that doesn’t touch upon them at all, but still exists in the same universe, is a job best left to the original creator.

As we’ve discovered with the barrage of new information Rowling has released over the past few months, there’s still much to learn about the Potterverse. There are entire histories at work here. North America’s will likely have an impact on the goings-on in Fantastic Beasts. Without that intel, Warner Bros. wouldn’t have been able to flesh out the richness of the plot and characters that we’re soon to meet.

Next: New Images from Fantastic Beasts Show Mayhem

We’ll see the impact of Rowling’s magic touch in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them come November. The countdown is on!

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