Cillian Murphy
Okay, so he’s Irish and not British, but his American accent is awesome, so I’m sure he could pull off a British accent as well if they needed him to. Or they could just have the story take place fully in New York, with Newt adopting an American accent to blend in, but regardless of which way Rowling opts to go with this, Murphy would be an excellent choice.
Cillian Murphy has shown in role after role how skilled of an actor he is, but I think it’s a cross between his main Nolan projects that best shows how well he could play this role. His character in Inception is hesitant about everything in the dream world, yet once thrust in he’s able to do what needs to be done, and becomes more adventurous with each further endeavor into his mind. I picture Newt with a very similar hesitancy. That would make for a very relatable character.
First, he’s introduced to the world of fantastic and dangerous beasts, and like most people, he’s not chomping at the bit to climb into a dragon’s mouth. But then, as he’s further exposed to these beasts, he becomes more and more comfortable, eventually growing into the leading expert on them. The film would be much better that way than if they went with a character like Hagrid, whose love and obsession for these characters borders on insane. That’s fine for a humorous supporting character, but it simply wouldn’t be effective for the lead of this film.
But, at the same time, Scamander has to be a scholar. I mean he writes a textbook, that’s not something most people are going to do for fun in their free time. Hence Scarecrow. For as crazed as Jonathan Crane was, and certainly evolves into, he’s a brilliant and believable psychologist. He loves the pursuit of learning, and is absolutely thrilled by the opportunity to inspect someone like the Batman. Take out the sinister plan and supervillain status, and you’ve got the kind of guy who would love to study venomous leopards. Murphy hasn’t led many major films, but he’s always enjoyable, even in the smallest roles. It’s time he got his due and led a franchise of this magnitude.
Well those are our picks. What do you think? Is there someone you’d rather see star in Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them? Head on down to the comments section to share your thoughts.