Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (soundtrack)

On 6 April 2016, it was announced that James Newton Howard would be composing the music for the film with veteran Harry Potter director David Yates at the helm and J.K Rowling penning the screenplay.[3] Howard stated that the film posed a "particular challenge" for him as it needed to be different and distinguishable from the previous Harry Potter films which saw iconic themes from acclaimed composer John Williams.[4] In an interview with Pottermore, Howard stated that "it really is a balance of keeping the magic, the slight tension and the comedy. You don’t want it to be too much one way or the other. It’s always a balancing act between things like pace, character point of view, action and humour." Discussions with Yates, suggested that the music should feel "like we’re being invited into a grand adventure".

Howard spent the majority of the time writing the themes at his piano for the main characters. For the character of Newt, he wrote two primary themes, a theme that displays Newt's warm personality and whimsicalness, and a theme for Newt's heroic actions which Howard calls "kind of the big, muscular hero theme". For Jacob, Howard crafted a tune that encompasses "lazy, bluesy 1920s quasi-jazzy kind". There were also themes for the creatures namely, the Erumpent, Demiguise and the Niffler.[5]

The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London with a 97-piece London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pete Anthony, with orchestrations by Jeff Atmajian and Peter Boyer. The score was mixed by Shawn Murphy.