Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be released in 2016, it has been announced.

The film will hit cinemas on November 18, 2016 and is the first in a trilogy.

The film is based on Harry Potter's Hogwarts textbook of the same name, which author J.K Rowling released as a standalone book in 2001.

The author will make her screenwriting debut with the film, which is set 70 years before any of the Harry Potter books and focuses on the textbook's author Newt Scamander.

It will not be a prequel or sequel, but "an extension of the wizarding world", Rowling said when the film was announced.

It is not known at this stage who will appear in the film or direct it.

Source: Press Release