He will play Jacob, a "muggle" (non-magical person) in the cast, which also includes the previously announced Eddie Redmayne, a Tony Award winner for Red and a 2015 Oscar winner for "The Theory of Everything," will play the lead.

Redmayne will play Newton Artemis Fido "Newt" Scamander, a graduate of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, who specializes in magical and supernatural animals. Unlike the rest of the "Harry Potter" stories, "Fantastic Beasts" is set at least partly in the U.S., specifically New York.

DH reported that the cast will also include Katherine Waterston, Ezra Miller and Alison Sudol.

Scheduled for release Nov. 18, 2016, in 3D and IMAX, the film will be an adaptation of the real/fictional book of the same title, ostensibly written by Scamander, but actually penned by the author of the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling. The book was originally published in 2001 to benefit the Comic Relief Charity. The action of the story takes place 70 years before the time of the Harry Potter books.

Rowling has written the screenplay herself--a first--and it is planned as the first film of a trilogy for Warner Bros. Pictures. It will be directed by David Yates, who also directed four of the "Harry Potter" movies. The magazine quotes Yates saying, “Eddie is a fearless actor, brimming with invention, wit and humanity. I couldn’t be more excited about the prospect of working with him as we start this new adventure in J.K. Rowling’s wonderful world, and I know she feels the same way.”