First Look: Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts

Although you'll have to wait until the next issue of Entertainment Weekly hits newsstands, the mag has Harry Potter fans in a frenzy with its cover image of Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander in the forthcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The film is a prequel to Harry Potter and is based on J.K. Rowling's 2001 encyclopedia beastanica, which describes magical creatures. It's Rowling's first screenplay, and it has Oscar winner Redmayne as a preeminent "magizoologist" who travels to New York in 1926 to visit the Magical Congress of the United States of America.

The cover image shows Redmayne with a briefcase (which is pivotal prop), standing inside the entrance of the art deco-influenced MACUSA, the American version of the Ministry of Magic that's housed inside the Woolworth Building in the film. The film also includes Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, and Samantha Morton. To find out what the American wizards are like and more secrets from the set, we'll have to check out the issue this week.