‘Fantastic Beasts’ Will Be Like ‘Goblet of Fire’

Although Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them takes place in the Harry Potter universe (and is a prequel of sorts) and boasts franchise vet David Yates as director, it’s still not clear exactly how much the new film will look or feel like the cinematic world of Harry Potter. According to producer David Heyman, Fantastic Beasts will indeed evoke the beloved films — or at least one of them in particular, anyway.

Heyman produced the Harry Potter films as well as Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the prequel / spinoff featuring Eddie Redmayne in the role of Newt Scamander, a magizoologist and author of the fictional textbook used at Hogwarts. While we recently learned a few character details, we’re still not sure how the film will stylistically fit in with the Harry Potter series. If you wanted a point of reference for what you can expect from Fantastic Beasts, Heyman provided an answer to Entertainment Weekly:

[Fantastic Beasts has] got the charm of the fourth. It’s like the fourth. Mike [Newell, director] talked about the fourth as being like an Indian musical — and it’s not that, but it’s got the humor of of that film. It has the romantic comedy, that fish-out-of-water humor, that very human, natural character comedy. And now David is always looking for truthful, human moments, it’s never just a gag, he’s grounding [the storytelling moments] in a reality. [Beasts] is very funny, it’s got a big heart, and there’s darkness too.

Goblet of Fire is a good reference given that it’s one of the best films in the series, and it has a beast we’ll be seeing again, as we recently learned that Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them also features merpeople.

Along with Redmayne, Fantastic Beasts stars Katherine Waterston, Colin Farrell, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, Ezra Miller, Ron Perlman, Jon Voight and Carmen Ejogo, and arrives on November 18, 2016.