It looks as though an old friend will be returning to the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts. David Yates, who directed four of the eight Potter movies, is in talks to direct the Potter-based franchise. J.K. Rowling is currently writing the screenplay for the film, which is set some 70 years before the events of the Potter series. The film centres on a fictitious author named Newton Artemis Fido Scamander.