“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” the latest film installment of J.K. Rowling’s magical “Harry Potter” world, hit theaters to positive reviews on Friday. Actor Alfred Enoch can’t wait to see it.
Enoch, who stopped by The Huffington Post last week to discuss Thursday’s jaw-dropping “How To Get Away With Murder” plot twist, played Dean Thomas in the “Harry Potter” film franchise. But it turns out he was a huge fan of the books before he was ever cast in the movies.
“When those books came out, everyone in my school, the whole year, that’s all anyone did,” he told HuffPost’s Cole Delbyck. “ ... It was such a big part of my childhood in so many ways. I’m fortunate to have been able to have been part of those movies and part of that world.”
Since the final movie in the original “Harry Potter” franchise was released in 2011, Rowling’s wizarding world has only continued to grow. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child,” a play based on another story by Rowling, opened in London earlier this year. “Fantastic Beasts,” which is an adaptation of Rowling’s 2001 book of the same title, is a sort-of prequel spinoff that expands the world even further, focusing on 1920’s New York City.
Enoch said it’s “fascinating” to see the latest installments from Rowling come through different media and watch Harry Potter’s world grow more vivid.
“One of the things I find really cool about ‘Fantastic Beasts’ and ‘The Cursed Child’ is that they are new stories in the world,” Enoch said. “You don’t want it to end when there’s a world that is drawn that fully and you invest so much in, as so many people did. So the fact that it’s kind of the second coming of the world of Harry Potter is so exciting.”
Hear more from Enoch in the video above and check out his full interview here.