'Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them' Casts Alison Sudol

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them has closed in on another lead. Alison Sudol is set to play Queenie in the Harry Potter spinoff, joining Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, and Ezra Miller. More details on the Fantastic Beasts Alison Sudol casting after the jump. Variety reported the news. David Yates is directing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from a script by J.K. Rowling (in her screenwriting debut). She and David Heyman will produce along with Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram.

Set roughly 70 years before the events of the Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them follows British "magizoologist" Newt Scamander (Redmayne) as he travels to New York in pursuit of magical creatures to study and document. Word is a U.S. school of witchcraft and wizardry may be involved as well.

Scamander did not play a role in the Harry Potter series, was known to Harry and friends as the author of their Hogwarts textbook Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Sudol's Queenie is the younger sister of Tina (Waterston), and both of them are witches. They encounter Newt during his travels through New York City. Kredan (Miller) is another magical character who crosses paths with Newt on his way. Aside from Scamander, all of the key characters are Americans.

The last major role remaining to be cast is that of Jacob, Newt's main rival. Josh Gad and John Krasinski are said to be in contention for the latter. A previous report also named Michael Cera as a possibility, but he's not mentioned here. A decision will be made in the coming days regarding Jacob.

Sudol is a singer-songwriter who performs under the stage name A Fine Frenzy. Lately she's been boning up her acting resume, appearing in USA's Dig and Amazon's Transparent. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them marks her feature film debut. She beat out several other contenders for the role including Saoirse Ronan, Dakota Fanning, and Lili Simmons.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them opens in theaters November 18, 2016.