WB Is Officially In the Harry Potter Prequel Business

Once the well went dry with Harry Potter & the Deathly Hollows - Part II, that was it for the Boy Who Lived and Warner Brothers couldn't have been sadder. A franchise where the average installment is a guaranteed $290 million domestic gross and $900-$950 million worldwide is a God send, and outside of Bond, no studio has that kind of reliable bread-winner.

Giving that up couldn't have been easy and in the six years since the final book's publication, no doubt higher-ups tried within the best of their ability to get the OK from author J.K. Rowling for a continuation of the universe onscreen. They got their wish. This morning the studio has announced a new franchise is in the works based on Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, the textbook-within-the-book Hogwarts students are required to read (and published as a stand-alone book back in 2001).

Rowling will author the screenplay. In the press release sent out, they really out of their way not to label this a prequel, but admitting its set in the same universe and 70 years before the events of Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone. Hey, Mrs. Rowling, that makes it a prequel.