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The following quote is from an answer for the question 'What are all the magical creatures/Beasts in Newt Scamander's suitcase?' in the Movies & TV SE:

  • Newt is seen bottle-feeding a luminescent creature with tentacles enter image description here
    ANGLE ON NEWT, now cradling a luminescent creature with sprouting alien-like tendrils. He feeds the creature with a bottle, while carefully watching how Jacob handles the Mooncalves—he recognizes a kindred spirit.
    Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling, SCENE 47, INT. Newt's Case, Animal Area (screenshot)

    This creature appears to be unnamed at the time of writing this. The only description we have comes from the screenplay and film. I will edit this post to add the name, whenever it inevitably surfaces.

Can anyone identify this animal/creature/beast?

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  • Maybe a Grindylow?
    – ibid
    Commented Nov 27, 2016 at 0:39
  • @ibid Hi, ibid :) consult the answer I linked at the start of my question, you'll see that the Grindylow had already been identified, and you can see it looks much different. Commented Nov 27, 2016 at 0:52
  • 3
    Then I guess it's not a Grindylow.
    – ibid
    Commented Nov 27, 2016 at 0:58

1 Answer 1

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According to the VFX house who created the effect, it's a Marmite. Note that this creature doesn't appear in any existing Potter property, including the Fantastic Beasts book.

On the creatures side, Method handled the shot of Newt bottle-feeding a young marmite – a tentacled cross between a dust mite and squid with a transparent body. Production provided live action plates with the actor, and Method artists added the CG creature to the shot, digitally wrapping 10-foot long tentacles around Newt and creating an underwater feel.

DELUXE’S METHOD STUDIOS CONTRIBUTES VFX MAGIC TO WB’S “FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

enter image description here enter image description here


This seems to be confirmed by the film's Concept Artist, Dan Baker. On his website he has a large range of concept images. The filename for the picture is "marmite_V009_DB.jpg" (also referred to as "shrimp creature" here and in the Art of Fantastic Beasts book).

enter image description here

“THE SHRIMP CREATURE The one was a lot of fun. I was asked to look at different types of transparent sea creatures to help capture some of its more grotesque otherworldly qualities. The tentacles were actually inspired by the bodies of hagfish which I thought where creepier somehow than traditional tentacles found on squid or octopuses. DB”


A similar level of confirmation comes from the website of FrameStore (the company that provided the film's art design and animations). The filename for the image below is "bos_20160517_marmite_v009c_bk_copy.jpg"

enter image description here

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    Fantastic! (pun not intended, I generally love using this word, a la David Tennant's Doctor Who) Thanks to you, the list of magical creatures/beasts (referenced in my question) is now the most complete list of correctly identified (and sourced) Fantastic Beasts animals. There is only one animal I have left out which I might add, but it's even more minor than the dung beetle, lol. Commented Dec 3, 2016 at 9:55
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    They're already had HP films set in Europe and America ... next time round, we'll have one set in Australia and this creature will be called a Vegemite.
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Dec 14, 2016 at 2:11

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