The past 12 months have been absolutely excellent as both an avid reader and a J.K. Rowling enthusiast. First, this time last year, Rowling released her first non-Potter novel, The Casual Vacancy. About six months later, The Cuckoo’s Calling was initially released under the pseudonym ‘Robert Galbraith’—who we learned to actually be Ms. Rowling herself. Throughout this time, Rowling’s Harry Potter themed website (which offers interactive versions of the books online), Pottermore, has completed all 7 books and grown to be a huge interactive community.

Now, ladies and gentlemen, let me just revert back to my 16-year-old-self (and pardon my French) for a moment when I tell you that she’s writing a fucking movie of FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM. Another Wizarding World film! Oh, my heart leaps like a thousand Cornish Pixies at the mere thought of donning—once again—my Hogwarts uniform and standing in line at midnight, wand at the ready, mumbling hexes at those muggles who so rudely call us Potter fans “geeks” and “losers” as I wait for the moment I’ll have waited for all year.

Originally created with the idea of donating all proceeds to the Comic Relief Charity in mind, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them is, in the Potter series, the text book used in the Care of Magical Creatures class, penned by the excitable magi-zoologist and son of a Hippogriff breeder, Newton Artemis Fido “Newt” Scamander. It details everything from the physical appearance to the magical properties and folklore surrounding all magical creatures – big and small.

This morning in a press release from Warner Bros., it was said that J.K. has agreed to pen the screenplay—the first in a series of films about Newt Scamander—set seventy years prior to the Harry Potter books (which technically take place in 1991-1997) in New York City, following the adventures of a young Scamander and his journey and run-ins with the fantastical beasts he writes about while working for the Beast Division at the Ministry of Magic.

When Warner Bros. approached her with the pitch for the film, she was quoted as saying “I thought it was a fun idea, but the idea of seeing Newt Scamander, the supposed author of ‘Fantastic Beasts’, realized by another writer was difficult.” It has been duly established that this will not involve the boy wizard in any way, but is to be an extension of the Wizarding World itself, much like what the (very) anticipated Star Wars films soon to come from Disney is expected to be.

An Interior Page from Fantastic Beasts, showing the style (and footnotes) in which Rowling designed it.

I have very high hopes for this series of films –release dates as of yet unknown—though I sincerely hope if she chooses to make films out of the other cannon books, she will go for Tales of Beedle the Bard and not Quidditch Through The Ages because, let’s be honest. No one cares about the history of quidditch.

Check back in soon for updates on all things Rowling!