Redmayne to star in 'Harry Potter' prequel

Big news in the wizarding world: Harry Potter will live on at the cineplex!

At least, his world will. Warner Bros. announced on Monday that Eddie Redmayne will star in the J.K. Rowling adaptation, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Redmayne will play Newt Scamander, the Wizarding World's preeminent magizoologist, who in his travels has encountered and documented a myriad of magical creatures, ultimately leading to his penning the Hogwarts School textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Based on Rowling's 2001 "text book" of magical beasts, the film will be set 70 years before Harry ever hit Hogwarts, and has a pro team behind it: the screenplay is written by Rowling, longtime Potter producer David Heyman is on board and David Yates, who led the last four Harry Potter films, will direct.

In February, Redmayne won a best actor Oscar for playing Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is slated for worldwide release on November 18, 2016.