(New York, NY – March 20, 2018) Scholastic, the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, today announced publication of the original screenplay of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Arthur A. Levine Books; Trade Hardcover Edition ISBN: 978-1-338-26389-3, $24.99 U.S., $29.99 CDN / Reinforced Library Edition ISBN: 978-1-338-32559-1, $27.99 U.S., $34.99 CDN, all ages) by J.K. Rowling on November 16, 2018, to coincide with the film’s worldwide release.

Set in J.K. Rowling’s wizarding world, the second of the five-film series that began with Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them moves from New York to London and on to Paris. Featuring a cast of both familiar and new magical creatures and characters, the film expands on earlier events that helped shape the wizarding world and includes some surprising nods to the Harry Potter stories that will delight fans of both the books and films.

At the end of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald was captured in New York with the help of Newt Scamander. But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escapes custody and sets about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings.

In an effort to thwart Grindelwald’s plans, Albus Dumbledore enlists Newt, his former Hogwarts student, who agrees to help once again, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.

The English language hardcover print editions will be published by Scholastic in the US and Canada, and Little, Brown Book Group in the UK, while the eBook edition is to be simultaneously published by Pottermore, the global digital publisher of J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. The screenplay for the first Fantastic Beasts film, which marked J.K. Rowling’s screenwriting debut, was published in November 2016.

About the film:

Filmed at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden, home to the Harry Potter films for a decade, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the second picture in the film series written by J.K. Rowling, and directed by David Yates, director of the first Fantastic Beasts film, as well as the last four Harry Potter feature films.

The film features an ensemble cast led by Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Carmen Ejogo, Poppy Corby-Tuech, with Jude Law and Johnny Depp.

The film is produced by David Heyman, J.K. Rowling, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram. Tim Lewis, Neil Blair, Rick Senat and Danny Cohen serve as executive producers.

Slated for release on November 16, 2018, the film will be distributed worldwide in 2D and 3D in select theatres and IMAX by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Notes to Editors:

1. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald original screenplay by J.K. Rowling is published in hardback (Scholastic; $24.99) and ebook (Pottermore) on November 16th 2018.
    
2. J.K. Rowling is the author of the bestselling Harry Potter series of seven books, published between 1997 and 2007, which have sold over 500 million copies worldwide, are distributed in more than 200 territories, have been translated into over 80 languages, and turned into eight blockbuster films.

She has written three companion volumes in aid of charity: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in aid of Comic Relief; and The Tales of Beedle the Bard in aid of her children’s charity Lumos.

In 2012, J.K. Rowling’s digital company and digital publisher Pottermore was launched, a place where fans can enjoy the latest news from across the wizarding world, features and original writing by J.K. Rowling.

Her first novel for adult readers, The Casual Vacancy, was published in September 2012 and adapted for TV by the BBC in 2015. Her crime novels, written under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, were published in 2013 (The Cuckoo’s Calling), 2014 (The Silkworm) and 2015 (Career of Evil), and have been adapted for a major television series for BBC One, produced by Brontë Film and Television.

J.K. Rowling’s 2008 Harvard commencement speech was published in 2015 as an illustrated book, Very Good Lives: The Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination, sold in aid of her charity Lumos and university–wide financial aid at Harvard.

In 2016, J.K. Rowling collaborated with writer Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany on the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two, which is now running at The Palace Theatre in London’s West End and opens on Broadway in April 2018.

The script books of both the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two and the film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them were published in 2016.

3. Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL) is the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, a leading provider of core literacy curriculum and professional services, and a producer of educational and entertaining children's media. The Company creates quality books and ebooks, print and technology-based learning programs for pre-K to grade 12, classroom magazines and other products and services that support children's learning both in school and at home. With operations in 14 international offices and exports to 165 countries, Scholastic makes quality, affordable books available to all children around the world through school-based book clubs and book fairs, classroom collections, school and public libraries, retail and online. True to its mission of 97 years to encourage the personal and intellectual growth of all children beginning with literacy, the Company has earned a reputation as a trusted partner to educators and families. Learn more at www.scholastic.com.
    
4. Pottermore Publishing is the global digital publisher of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts series as well as other audiobooks and eBooks from the Wizarding World. It aims to lead the way in innovative digital publishing and to bring new generations of readers together with long-standing fans, celebrating and bringing to life the stories that first began with the Boy Who Lived.

Press Contacts:

U.S.
Kris Moran, kmoran@scholastic.com, Charisse Meloto, cmeloto@scholastic.com

Canada
Denise Anderson, kanderson@scholastic.ca