'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' to be 'at least' a trilogy

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be split into at least three movies.

Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara announced the news at a Time Warner investors conference Wednesday. The first film will mark author J.K. Rowling's screenwriting debut, with David Yates as director.

"Jo has a vision for this extension of the franchise," Tsujihara shared. "And for the first time, she is writing the script for what she believes is at least a trilogy."

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was published in 2001, and is presented as Harry Potter's textbook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The films will follow the book's "author," Newt Scamander, as he studies magical creatures 70 years before Harry's story begins.

The first Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them movie will debut November 18, 2016, with additional release dates set for 2018, 2020 and beyond. Yates previously directed the last four films in the Harry Potter series.