David Yates tipped to direct Harry Potter spin-off

David Yates looks set to re-enter JK Rowling’s wizarding world as he is tipped to direct the Harry Potter spin-off.

The filmmaker was at the helm of the last four Potter movies and is now attached to direct JK’s Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them, reported Variety.

While a deal has yet to be made, he is in talks about directing the first instalment of the planned trilogy.

David directed Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter (Warner Bros)

The new film was inspired by JK’s 2001 fictitious wizard textbook of the same name and will be about its fictional author, a “magizoologist” named Newt Scamander.

So far nobody has been cast in the lead role.

The movie – which is set before the adventures of Harry and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, played by Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in the franchise – will be released in US cinemas on November 18, 2016.