Update: Mystery solved!
One day after tweeting a Fantastic Beasts-related anagram, screenwriter J.K. Rowling offered a couple of additional clues about her riddle.
And guess what: Rowling herself has confirmed that Hypable readers are on the right track with “Newt Scamander’s History of New York Fauna: One town, my tale”!
In the first tweet Rowling made Tuesday morning, the author quoted someone else’s tweet which used one of our reader’s guesses:
Rowling deleted the tweet fifteen minutes later because the first portion is from this Twitter user, and the tweet makes it sound like Rowling herself says “Hypable probably has it right.”
(We receive text notifications every time Rowling tweets and can verify the screenshot-ed tweet above is legitimate. SO COOL RIGHT?)
Then Rowling offered up this tweet, still using the clue written by Hypable reader spellm:
"Newt Scamander's History of New York Fauna: One town, my tale" Warmer.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 7, 2014
And then:
#helpfulhint The solution is the first sentence of a synopsis of Newt's story. It isn't part of the script, but sets the scene.
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) October 7, 2014
We were very impressed by all of the ideas in our comments yesterday, and now that we have this new information, maybe someone will crack it today.
Here’s where we stand: Rowling has confirmed “Newt Scamander’s History of New York Fauna: One town, my tale” is on the right track, but a “r” from the original anagram is absent.
The mystery continues – but maybe not for long!
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in theaters November 18, 2016.