David Yates To Direct Harry Potter Spinoff Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

David Yates will direct the Harry Potter spinoff film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, according to Variety.

Yates previously directed the final four films in the Harry Potter franchise - The Order of the Phoenix, The Half-Blood Prince, and parts 1 and 2 of The Deathly Hallows.

The report says that the deal has not been finalized, but that Yates is currently in negotiations with Warner Bros.

Fantastic Beasts is set about 70 years prior to the events of the Harry Potter series, and well tell the story of Newt Scamander, the "magizoologist" who wrote the titular texbook (which was written and released by creator J.K. Rowling in the real world).

"Although it will be set in the worldwide community of witches and wizards where I was so happy for seventeen years, 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' is neither a prequel nor a sequel to the Harry Potter series, but an extension of the wizarding world," Rowling said of the planned film trilogy, which she is scripting.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens November 18, 2016.