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Collider’s Adam Chitwood visited the “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” set in December 2015 to talk to the producers about the new project. Needless to say, many inquiring minds wanted to know about the spin-off series that would keep the Wizarding World alive after “Harry Potter” came to an end. While on set, it came to light that one of the long-term “Harry Potter” producers, Lionel Wigram, had once wanted to do a documentary-style film.
Fellow producer David Heyman shed light on Wigram’s desire to pursue a Newt Scamander documentary. The approach would have been unique — and it might have made sense considering the source material the movie is based on is actually more of a textbook-style book, detailing different types of magical creatures. Ultimately, J.K. Rowling had a different vision for “Fantastic Beasts.”
“So, Lionel had this idea. Jo got wind of it. She said, ‘Well, [funnily] enough I’d been thinking about something already.’ And she 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,” Heyman explained. While Wigram was contemplating a Newt documentary, Rowling had developed her own ideas about how to tell Newt’s story. “So, when she started, she showed us the script and [we] went, ‘Whew. Thank you.'”
