Matt Smith 'Tipped for Role' in Harry Potter Spinoff Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Matt Smith
Matt Smith |

It is quite possible that Doctor Who actor Matt Smith will star in the Harry Potter spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which has been scheduled for release on November 18, 2016.

Smith is the eleventh Doctor Who in the highly successful television series. According to The Sun and MTV News, the actor has been "tipped off" to play the role of "magizoologist" Newt Scamander.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will take place 80 years before "The Boy Who Lived" Harry Potter even ventures inside the magical world of Hogwarts. Its synopsis reads, "The adventures of writer Newt Scamander in New York's secret community of witches and wizards seventy years before Harry Potter reads his book in school."

Smith seems eager to take on the role, and the movie will be directed by David Yates who directed the final four Harry Potter films Order of the Phoenix, Half Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2.

It was also reported that another famed British actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, was offered the role of Scamander but he allegedly turned it down to play Hamlet on stage instead.

Not much has been said about the upcoming movie though but producer David Heyman did tease that Rowling's script was "sublime," so Harry Potter fans are guaranteed to love the spinoff.

"It's funny, it's vivid, it's exciting. It's filled with all the hallmarks of Rowling's incredible imagination," Heyman told IGN.

Whether or not Smith will play Scamander in Rowling's next film is not yet certain, but he will definitely be seen in the upcoming movie Terminator: Genisys alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, and Jai Courtney.

He will be playing Skynet, or rather the embodiment of Skynet. Fans who are used to seeing him as the protagonist Doctor Who will be surprised to find their beloved actor being an antagonistic force in the blockbuster movie.

Aside from Terminator: Genisys, Smith will be seen in another upcoming movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which he stars in together with his girlfriend Lily James, who also happens to be the lead actress in Disney's live action movie Cinderella.

James plays Jane Austen's most beloved heroine Elizabeth Bennet in the film, while Smith plays her spurned suitor, the bumbling Mr. Collins. James told The Belfast Telegraph that the zombie movie is very hard to describe, although she confirmed it's not a "pastiche."