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Warner Bros' Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them doesn't open in cinemas until November 18 - but we already know when we'll be seeing its sequel.

The studio has announced that the still-untitled second film will follow almost exactly two years later, arriving on November 16, 2018. This puts the Fantastic Beasts series on a biennial release schedule - a departure from the yearly releases that the core Harry Potter films saw.


The films will follow Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), a 'magizoologist' in the wizarding world as he travels to New York. Set in the 1920s, it will be a chance to explore both a time period and a setting not seen in Potter creator JK Rowling's original books.

Rowling has written the script for the movie, which will see Newt's collection of strange creatures escape, causing trouble for wizards and muggles alike. It will also introduce the 'New Salem Philanthropic Society', a group of non-magic extremists looking to repeat the murderous Salem witch trials.

Scamander's adventures in the new world serve as the background material to Rowling's 2001 book of the same name, written for Comic Relief and published as if it were Harry's actual textbook on magizoology from Hogwarts.

Warner Bros has also confirmed that Rowling will once again write the script for Fantastic Beasts 2, and David Yates - who also helmed the final four Harry Potter movies - will continue to direct. Deadline claims the sequel will err for a darker tone, as Newt and his allies "have to decide on their allegiances".