| Natalie Finn 10. April 2015 – 17:55
Is Eddie Redmayne going to be one of the stars who will soon be filling us in on where to locate all of the fantastic beasts?
The Oscar winner is reportedly in talks to star in the upcoming Harry Potter spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a film inspired by a Hogwarts textbook that was referenced in J.K. Rowling‘s best-selling book series.
Rowling herself is penning the script, her first time writing for the screen.
According to Variety, Redmayne is the No. 1 choice for the role of “magical zoologist” Newt Scamander, whose life’s work is chronicled in the book—which may have only truly been read cover to cover by the likes of Hermione Granger, but still.
PHOTOS: Best-ever Harry Potter movie moments
Warner Bros. announced back in October that an entire trilogy was in the works, with the three films set for respective release in 2016, 2018 and 2020. The studio had no comment on the casting report.
Redmayne of course just had the most triumphant year of his career, winning (among other things) a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and the Oscar for his role as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
While he’s certainly got plenty of indie-drama cred, the British thesp is also no stranger to big-budget fare, having played Marius in the splashy big-screen adaptation of Les Misérables.
As evidenced by his heart-stirring portrayal of Hawking, who has been battling ALS for more than 40 years, Redmayne is not afraid of taking risks, either. He’s playing a transgender woman in his next film, The Danish Girl, based on the Australian novel of the same name that was a fictionalized account about Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo sex-reassignment surgery.
“I think it will be a unique experience,” Redmayne told British GQ recently.
He added, “There is so much I need to investigate…It’s a very famous story within the transcommunity.”
PHOTOS: Check out the adorable Eddie Redmayne before he was famous
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