Wizards duelling on the streets of New York City have been seen for the first time, thanks to photos from the set of J.K Rowling’s latest Harry Potter film.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a film based on a textbook of the same name that Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger receive in their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Starring Eddie Redmayne as its author and “odd” wizard Newt Scamander, the film is set in the 1920s, just years before the book was first published in the “Potterworld” timeline in 1927.

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A version of the textbook was released in 2001 (in the Muggle world) as a collation of writings on 85 rare “Magizoology” animal species across five continents.

Journalists were allowed onto the huge set last week, and on Friday Warner Bros. released images from the set via Entertainment Weekly.

“Fantastic Beasts follows Eddie Redmayne’s character Newt Scamander, an odd magizoologist who travels to New York with nothing but a seemingly normal briefcase that is actually an expansive magical device, containing habitats for rare and endangered magical creatures, all of which Newt has collected on his travels around the globe,” Entertainment Weekly wrote.

“Soon after his arrival, Newt discovers that the wizarding community in America is fearfully hiding Muggles, and the threat of public exposure is an even greater concern than in the UK.”

Scenes throughout the movie move through the Lower East Side of New York City, at a time when the Woolworths building was the city’s tallest.

Redmayne and co-stars Katherine Waterston and Alison Sudol are seen looking quite regal in their period attire in the nine images.

The sneak peek is a big moment for the Harry Potter series’ millions of fans.

Details of the plot are unknown, because it is the first time Rowling has taken full control of a movie, by writing it and not having it adapted from a book that already existed.

All that was known was that the film is a prequel to the original series and would not be related to any pre-existing plots.

The movie is expected to be released worldwide in November 2016.

Your exclusive first look at the #HarryPotter prequel @FantasticBeasts is finally here! https://t.co/EBmfNj1oXE pic.twitter.com/cOUMTG2Bbv

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) November 4, 2015

Your exclusive first look inside J.K. Rowling’s whole Newt world of #FantasticBeasts: https://t.co/g6AFJBs7Ebpic.twitter.com/4GbLYHq22N

— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) November 7, 2015