Eddie Redymane will now be joined by Katherine Waterston in the upcoming Harry Potter spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them.

The film, which is to be directed by Harry Potter alum David Yates, who will be using a script written by J.K. Rowling – who makes her screenwriting debut – will focus on Newt Scamander, the magizoologist who has documented numerous magical creatures and wrote about his discoveries in the Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. For more on Waterston’s role in the film, check out the story below.

THR broke the news earlier today. According to the site Waterston will play the role of Tina, or Porpentina, a witch who operates in the U.S. The film is set in 1920s New York, seventy odd years before the events of Harry Potter. Rowling confirmed that Fantastic Beasts is not a prequel to the Potter franchise.

As for Waterson, she beat Kate Upton (The Other Woman, The Three Stooges), and Elizabeth Debicki (The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Great Gatsby) for the role of Tina. The shortlist also mentioned that Saoirse Ronan, (The Grand Budapest Hotel, Hanna), Dakota Fanning (Effie Grey, Very Good Girls), Lili Simmons (Showtime’s Banshee), and Alison Sudol (USA’s Dig, Amazon’s Transparent) were all auditioning for the role of Queenie, Porpentina’s younger sister, although we don’t know who the studio is leaning towards or if any of the actresses are still even being considered. There were reports that the shortlist may be an incomplete list and that there were other actresses they could be considering.

The title of the film refers to the work of Newt Scamander (Redmayne), a magizoologist who has documented numerous magical creatures and wrote about his discoveries in the textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them that students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry study. The report says that Scamander will first meet Porpentina when he stops in New York City on his travels to find and document magical creatures.

David Heyman, Steve Kloves, who wrote seven out of the eight Potter movies, and Lionel Wigram, will produce.

Waterston, who worked opposite Joaquin Phoenix in Inherent Vice, was also seen in HBO’s Boardwalk Empire. She can next be seen starring alongside Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs’ girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan, in Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs’ biopic Jobs.

[Source: THR]