‘Harry Potter’ Spinoff Wants ‘Doctor Who’ Star Matt Smith

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was already going to make all of the money in the world before it set its sights on a leading man with an absurdly passionate fanbase. But now that J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter spin-off is supposedly eyeing former Doctor Who star Matt Smith to play magical animal expert Newt Scamander, this thing is going to be required viewing for everyone with even a single geeky bone in his or her body.

But don’t celebrate just yet, nerds. The news that Smith is in the running for the part comes to us from the British tabloid The Sun (via Blastr), a publication known for playing fast and loose with the facts. Don’t believe this until you hear something official.

Yet it makes a lot of sense! Smith is one of only 17 British actors in the entire world who missed out on appearing in the original eight Harry Potter films, so this is his chance to play catch-up. Plus, the cross section of Potterheads and Whovians is large enough to make this casting a Pretty Big Deal. Fans of whimsical British genre stories will flip out if this comes to pass.

And just look at Smith’s face. He already looks like he lives in a world of unicorns and gnomes, so just get him a robe already.

The screenwriting debut of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be directed by David Yates, who helmed the final four Potter films. Here’s how Rowling describes the project:

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. The laws and customs of the hidden magical society will be familiar to anyone who has read the Harry Potter books or seen the films, but Newt’s story will start in New York, seventy years before Harry’s gets underway.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is set to open on November 18, 2016.