Warner Bros. has officially begun production on the sequel to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. The Harry Potter spin-off wasn’t as popular as the original material, bringing in only around $814 million USD worldwide, and nor was as beloved — with only has a 73 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, the lowest of any film in the Potterverse. Still, the tale of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) was still a success by any measure. A sequel was always in the cards, and now fans finally have some information on what the next chapter of Newt’s life will hold.
Taking place months after the first film, Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law) will team up with his former student Newt Scamander in order to stop Dumbledore’s former BFF Grindelwald (Johnny Depp*) from taking over the world. Grindelwald is basically Magical Hitler, believing that wizards with pure blood are the superior beings, meant to lord over all creation. As Fantastic Beasts takes place in the 1920s, it seems reasonable that in J.K. Rowling’s world, Grindelwald’s beliefs somehow trickle down to the Muggle world by the 1930s, leading to one of the most horrific events of human history. Thanks, wizards.
*Is it too late for Grindelwald to decide he much preferred the visage of Colin Farrell and revert to that version?
The untitled Fantastic Beasts sequel will also bring back Katherine Waterson’s Tina, Alison Sudol’s Queen, Ezra Miller’s Credence, and Dan Fogler’s Jacob. That last bit is good news for anyone who left the theater believing Jacob truly did still remember all his adventures and was merely pretending otherwise. Zoe Kravitz will join the cast in the flesh as Leta Lestrange after being merely a photograph in the first film. Other new additions will be Callum Turner and Claudia Kim. The former playing Newt’s brother Theseus and the latter playing an unknown character who is a featured attraction at a wizard circus. Hopefully, Fantastic Beasts knows what they’re doing, because “only Asian wizard is a circus attraction” is not a good look. The cast will be moving from New York City to Paris and London.
The weird thing about the Fantastic Beasts spin-off is fans know how it ends: with the 1945 duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald that ends the Global Wizarding War. But sometimes the story is in the journey, not the surprise that is the destination. Knowing the broad strokes of the tale is not the same of as digging into the choices that lead there.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)