Eddie Redmayne Wanted for 'Harry Potter' Spinoff

Eddie Redmayne, fresh off his Oscar win, is the frontrunner for the lead role in the "Harry Potter" spinoff "Fantastic Beasts."

Image via Focus

Eddie Redmayne is only 33, but he's already got his Oscar win out of the way for playing Stephen Hawking in the limited-release arthouse film The Theory of Everything, so now maybe it's time to do a massive blockbuster trilogy. 

Variety reports that while there's no contract yet, the British actor is the top choice to play the lead role in the Harry Potter spinoff movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, named for a Hogwarts textbook from the Potter universe. 

The first film in the planned Beasts trilogy is due out in 2016 and is being written by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in her first stab at screenwriting. 

Redmayne would play "magiczoologist" Newt Scamander, whose name definitely sounds like something out of a Potter book. Nicholas Hoult (young Beast in the X-Men movies) has also reportedly been considered for the Scamander role, but the studio's first choice appears to be Redmayne.

Redmayne just finished filming The Danish Girl, in which he plays one of the first people to undergo sexual reassignment surgery. 

 

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