A Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts Exhibition Is Coming To Natural History Museum

Laura Reynolds
By Laura Reynolds Last edited 50 months ago

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A Harry Potter Fantastic Beasts Exhibition Is Coming To Natural History Museum
Scientists from the Museum collecting the Erumpent horn. Photo: Jeff Spice @ Getty

Natural History Museum is dedicating a new exhibition to the legendary beasts from Harry Potter's wizarding world.

Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature opens in the Waterhouse Gallery in the spring and combines digital installations featuring the mythical creatures alongside real, scientific specimens from the museum's collection. A tiger and a Galapagos marine iguana alongside an Erumpent horn and the dragon skull from Professor Lupin's classroom.

How do you move an Erumpent horn? Very carefully. Photo: Jeff Spicer @ Getty

The aim is to demonstrate how nature has inspired myths and legends, such a the way that the camouflage tactics of a jaguar are similar to that of the wizarding world's Demiguise. Magizoologist Newt Scamander is in the spotlight too, showing how real life scientists have helped us understand the natural world.

Photo: Diliff

Few more details have yet been released about the exhibition, which is a collaboration between the museum, Warner Bros. and BBC Studios Natural History Unit, but we do know that a BBC One show will run alongside it. Stephen Fry presents the one-hour special, connecting J.K. Rowling's fictional creatures with similar animals on the planet today.

Fantastic Beasts: The Wonder of Nature is at Natural History Museum 22 May 2020-3 January 2021 before going on tour. Tickets go on general sale on Thursday 16 January at 10am, adult £18/child £10.95.

Last Updated 14 January 2020

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