Based on a 2001 book by Rowling, Fantastic Beasts purports to be a copy of Harry Potter's textbook – about the magical creatures of the Potter universe – first mentioned in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Rowling has also penned the screenplay – her first foray into writing movies.

The movie, released in Australia on November 17, is about a power struggle within the secretive American wizardry community.

Newt Scamander, played by Eddie Redmayne, appears to have landed in 1920s America.

Harry Potter fans may know Scamander as the older author of Fantastic Beasts – but 70 years earlier, he was a young magizoologist, collecting magical creatures and storing them in his briefcase. Of course, it doesn't take long for them to escape and start terrorising the residents of Manhattan.

According to Wired, the trailer hints at film that looks "part Potterverse, part Gotham, part The Crucible".

We see a winged Thunderbird, and Scamander hiding in a subway station from what appear to be magical bats.

"The debate seems to be over whether American wizards should expose themselves to "no-majes" (non-magic people), flying in the face of an extremist organisation called the New Salem Philanthropic Society," The Verge reports.

"Someone suggests that this might instigate a war! It's all very dramatic, but looks beautiful. Plus, that familiar Harry Potter score is back – if you're susceptible to crippling nostalgia it might not be safe for work."

And The Guardian says Samantha Morton plays Mary Lou like a "Trumpian demagogue".

"Preaching to her sinister followers, the grim-countenanced leader of the witch-murdering New Salem Philanthropic Society seems to be adopting a scorched-earth, divide-and-conquer policy in her efforts to convince New York that it is under threat from sinister unseen magical forces."

The film is directed by David Yates, who helmed the last four Harry Potter blockbusters.