At the end of the first film, the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Depp) was captured by MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America), with the help of Newt Scamander (Redmayne). But, making good on his threat, Grindelwald escaped custody and has set about gathering followers, most unsuspecting of his true agenda: to raise pure-blood wizards up to rule over all non-magical beings.
In an effort to thwart Grindelwald’s plans, Albus Dumbledore (Law) enlists his former student Newt Scamander, who agrees to help, unaware of the dangers that lie ahead. Lines are drawn as love and loyalty are tested, even among the truest friends and family, in an increasingly divided wizarding world.
Here’s a breakdown of the photo:
Pictured from left to right: Jude Law plays a young Albus Dumbledore, taking on the mantle of one of J.K. Rowling’s most beloved characters; Ezra Miller makes a return as the enigmatic Credence, whose fate was unknown at the end of the first film; Claudia Kim appears as a Maledictus, the carrier of a blood curse that destines her ultimately to transform into a beast; Zoe Kravitz plays Leta Lestrange, who had once been close to Newt Scamander but is now engaged to his brother; Callum Turner joins the cast as Newt’s older brother, Theseus Scamander, a celebrated war hero and the Head of the Auror Office at the British Ministry of Magic; Katherine Waterston returns as Tina Goldstein, who has been reinstated as an Auror for MACUSA; Eddie Redmayne stars again as wizarding world Magizoologist Newt Scamander, who has now gained fame in the wizarding world as the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; Dan Fogler reprises the role of the only No-Maj in the group, Jacob Kowalski; Alison Sudol reprises the part of Tina’s free-spirited sister, Queenie Goldstein, a Legilimens who can read minds; and Johnny Depp returns as the powerful Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is being directed by David Yates, from a screenplay by J.K. Rowling, and produced by David Heyman. The film Opens in theaters November 16, 2018.
On the plus side, it wasn’t terrible, and may even be good … but I really couldn’t tell because of the blasted, and blasting, ‘BWWWWAAAAAAAT’, that some idiot thought might constitute a suspenseful musical overture.
Was it just me? Am I becoming a grumbling old bag in my dotage? 😀 … that was probably a rhetorical question, but it might not be. 😀
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I thought it looked pretty awesome, and I’m so glad they brought Dan Fogler back. He stole the first film.
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He and Queenie, together again, I hope. 🙂
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I think Fantastic Beasts is destined to be a better, more satisfying cinematic experience than the actual Harry Potter movies. Not the books, you understand, but you know how I feel about the films. I do wonder why a character like Newt Scamander is at the center of these movies, and not Dumbledore himself, especially when they have Jude Law playing him, but I’m going to see how things pan out. My biggest worry, after seeing Depp ham it up for twenty seconds at the end of the last one, was watching Depp ham it up for the remainder of the series, but one look at him in THIS trailer and I’m daring to hope that he’ll rein it in. This series is now something I’m really, really looking forward to.
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I really liked the trailer. I think Dumbledore’s role will grow in every film leading to the 1945 duel between the two than lands Grindelwald in prison where he remains until Voldemort tracks him down and kills him. For whatever reason though, Dumbledore feels he has to use Newt as a proxy at the moment, behavior he later repeats using Harry as a proxy against Voldemort. It’s consistent with how he works.
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I get that it’s a part of Dumbledore’s MO, but using a proxy made more sense in the context of the time period of the HP novels, and Dumbledore’s age and position. You second guess AB at your peril, though.
One of the things I love about this new series is that Rowling went out of her way to make her protagonist completely different from Harry, and in the first film at least, Redmayne did not let the quirkiness and mannerisms get annoying and overpower the character or the film.
Speaking of Redmayne, RIP Stephen Hawking, one of the men I admired most in life, and one of the men that everyone should have admired most. I hope he was wrong about God, and that God, or a proxy, is currently explaining a workable theory of everything to him. Not many people show up at the gates who would understand the intricacies.
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I meant, you second guess “AD” at your peril.
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Is there a clause in Johnny Depp’s contracts that he has to wear white make-up in all his movies? 😀
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I doubt it, just a desire to be SUPER Caucasian lol
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Depp is slowly, inexorably transforming into a mime. I’ve been saying it for years. The pancake makeup is just one small part of it.
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I suppose there are worse mimes than Depp…
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