Return to the wizarding world: upcoming spinoff revives ‘Harry Potter’ hype

Among the best of my childhood friends were the three people I could always count on: Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, the widely beloved central characters of J. K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” books. They were as familiar to me as my real-life friends were; Hogwarts was my second home.

In elementary school, my friends and I used to spend countless recesses and lunches acting out our favorite scenes and inventing our own. (I vaguely remember one of the boys trying to engage the Whomping Willow in a deadly boxing match.) There was also our increased excitement and interest in the series every time a new book or movie came out. Every time Harry’s world started to become old and boring, it seemed, new content appeared to lure us back to Hogwarts.

Latest case in point: “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the first installment of which is to be released in 2016. Rowling described the “Fantastic Beasts” movie trilogy, set 70 years before Harry’s time, as "neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world." Inspired by the fictional textbook of the same name, it follows the adventures of Newt Scamander, the credited author.

There are plenty of "Potterheads" who hate the idea of possibly spoiling the overall epicness of the existing franchise. (Let’s not even talk about “The Giver.”) But while these concerns are justified, I think “Fantastic Beasts” will be a great addition to the Potterverse.

A common concern with movie-book adaptations is that they use the term “based upon” loosely, meaning that the movie hardly resembles the work(s) it is derived from. (I’m looking at you, “Percy Jackson” movies!) But because Rowling is both movie screenwriter and the creator of the wizarding world, one can anticipate a film that doesn’t grossly contradict everything already established by the original author.

Plus, it could be really cool to see the wizarding world from a different perspective. Thus far, we’ve only experienced the wizarding world through the eyes of Harry, an adolescent boy only starting to discover this wonderfully mysterious community. What would the wizarding world be like for Newt Scamander, who grew up surrounded by magic?

Even if the movie doesn’t manage to match fans’ expectations, we don’t have to let it ruin the Hogwarts story we love. Regardless of this new spinoff’s success (or lack thereof), we still have the existing works — seven awesome books and eight (more or less) satisfactory movies, not to mention our own Hogwarts-inspired imaginings — to enjoy.