‘Fantastic Beasts’ Unleashed in America

A new “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” trailer is out — and it’s packed with fanciful, unusual critters of all shapes and sizes. Plus, there’s Eddie Redmayne popping up out of a small suitcase, a little reminiscent of Mary Poppins.

The year is 1926. Redmayne plays Newt Scamander, a British wizard who has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures.

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One standout “beast” is a badger/mole-like little guy — Niffler.

“Niffler may become a bit of a star and I hope it doesn’t go to his head,” Redmayne told USA Today. “Newt and he already have quite a love-hate relationship. I think if his ego gets even more inflated that might cause carnage in the future.”

The film kicks off as Scamander arrives in New York for a brief stopover, bumps into a No-Maj — otherwise known as a Muggle — and a box full of magical monsters gets released in the city. You halfway expect a cameo from a vintage Rudy Giuliani in there somewhere.

Instead, we get Jon Voight — and Zoe Kravitz, Ezra Miller, Colin Farrell, Ron Perlman, and Alison Sudol.

The movie is a Harry Potter spin-off, but it’s set 70 years before the events in the Harry Potter books. And it’s set in the U.S.A.

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J.K. Rowling wrote the original script — it’s her debut screenplay. David Yates, who directed the last four Potter movies, also directed “Fantastic Beasts.”

Rowling explained that although “Fantastic Beasts” features a whole new set of characters, it’s still part of the Potter world — just an expansion of it. “I think part of me will forever live there — and I’m not sorry about that,” she told the BBC.