The first Fantastic Beasts movie will be scored by busy-bee composer James Newton Howard.
The news was confirmed by Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’s official website, which now lists James Newton Howard in the credits:
Howard is a very popular composer in Hollywood. He scored all four Hunger Games movies, The Bourne Legacy, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Huntsman Winter’s War, Maleficent, The Last Airbender, and Peter Pan (2003) — plus many, many more movies.
Some Harry Potter fans may’ve been hoping for John Williams to score Fantastic Beasts. The composer handled the first three Harry Potter movies and returned to the Star Wars world for The Force Awakens, so it wouldn’t have been crazy to hope that he’d make a return to the Wizarding World. He even helped open Wizarding World Hollywood at Universal Studios earlier this week.
Patrick Doyle composed Goblet of Fire, Nicholas Hooper scored Order of the Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince, and Alexandre Desplat scored both Deathly Hallows movies.
It’ll be interesting to see if Howard stays on board for the next two Fantastic Beasts movies. Considering he committed to the entire Hunger Games series and two of Christopher Nolan’s Batman movies, it’s quite possible he’ll handle J.K. Rowling’s complete trilogy.
Fantastic Beasts stars Eddie Redmayne and opens in theaters this November. A new sneak peek is set to be unveiled during Sunday night’s MTV Movie Awards.
Thanks to Sachin for the tip!
Correction: An earlier version of this article stated he composed The Dark Knight and Batman Begins. This is not the case — though he is credited with working with Hans Zimmer on these scores.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.