'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' Will Top Even 'Harry Potter'

The Harry Potter not-quite-prequel Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which will take place in the Potter universe in Prohibition-era New York, is officially going to be better than the Harry Potter movies. Although those films are classics because they’re fun, and because McGonagall and Lucius Malfoy were exactly as they were in all our heads, and because of the most amazingly awkward hug in all of cinema …

… they weren’t actually that great standing on their own. The Lord of The Rings and Game of Thrones are adaptations in a similar vein — epic fantasy based on a complex, sprawling series of books — yet their screen versions can stand as complete entities that can be appreciated independently. The Potter films, hustled into production to maximize the megafans’ interest before they hit puberty, felt like adaptations: hurried, occasionally nonsensical, and confusing to non-readers. Fantastic Beasts doesn’t have to worry about the burden of adaptation, which is one of the reasons it will be superior. Here are some others.

J.K. Rowling is Writing The Script

The Potter films had some questionable writing — such as some truly awkward character introductions, like that time the writers tried to pretend Bill Weasley was just meeting Harry in the very last one.

Or like the time they took the cinematic climax in which Harry kills Voldemort dramatically in front of the whole world and everyone loses their shit … and somehow managed to make it less cinematic on the screen. Harry kills him in a weird isolated wrestling match, then he walks inside and nobody notices or says anything. Not even an “Oh yeah, thanks, I guess,” or even a, “You got that done, then, cool.”

But Rowling wasn’t in the writers’ room during those films. As we know from her ability to spin truly memorable dialogue:

“Death’s got an Invisibility Cloak?” Harry interrupted again.

“So he can sneak up on people,” said Ron. “Sometimes he gets bored of running at them, flapping his arms and shrieking …”

Or this:

“You’ve sort of made up for it tonight,” said Harry. “Getting the sword. Finishing off the Horcux. Saving my life.”

“That makes me sound a lot cooler than I was,” Ron mumbled.

“Stuff like that always sounds cooler than it really was,” said Harry. “I’ve been trying to tell you that for years.”

And from her Twitter:

Rowling is hilarious and sassy, and writes equally hilarious and sassy characters. Speaking of, the mouthpieces for her dialogue in Fantastic Beasts are another reason it will be better than the Potter films.

The stars are all legendary actors

In the Potter flicks, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson did an admirable job for actors progressing from childhood to adulthood. However, as nicely as they developed, it did create an odd situation in which inexperienced actors got far more screen time than seasoned British film legends like Maggie Smith, Gary Oldman, and Emma Thompson. In Fantastic Beasts, the screen legends will get to have the majority of the screen time. The star just won the Best Actor Oscar, and you can’t not want to be his best friend or maybe adopt him after watching his acceptance speech.

He will be the protagonist, Newt Scamander, who happens to be Luna Lovegood’s grandfather-in-law. Look at that happy dance! Can’t you see him doing that with Luna? As for his co-stars, it has just been announced that one of them will be Colin Farrell. Farrell is a highly underrated actor who brings a standout energy to all of his work. He always injects his characters with heart, even when they’re dicks.

And he even dated Fleur.

As for Ezra Miller he’s got the talent of a much older actor, skating between being a human version of a golden retriever (with Hermione):

And being absolutely terrifying in We Need To Talk About Kevin. Not to mention, he held his own in a comedy scene with Amy Schumer in Trainwreck. It’s pretty safe to say the casting for Fantastic Beasts is promising as hell.

And finally, ‘Fantastic Beasts’ is going to have wizards in Prohibition-era New York

This movie was not good in any way, but imagine wizards doing this.

We thought wizards in current-day London were exciting but think of all the possibilities: wizard flappers. Magical speakeasies. Wizard jazz clubs. Dangerous dame witches and trench coat-wearing wizards who call each other “old sport.” Even Potter doubters will be able to appreciate Fantastic Beasts. It hits theaters in November 2016.