Small Details You Missed In Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald finally brings together the story of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his old professor Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), as the story journeys back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry long before it would be violated by the Dark Lord and his army of deatheaters.

The film picks up where Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them left off, as Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) inevitably escapes the clutches of the Ministry of Magic and begins his mission to conquer the world so wizards can roam free without fear of persecution by non-magical people. And since Dumbledore and Grindelwald have a very complicated history with one another — even bound by blood to never fight — the former takes some serious convincing before he'll get involved against his former friend-slash-flame. In the process, there are a ton of Easter eggs planted throughout the picture that only true Harry Potter aficionados are bound to catch. Here's a look at some of the finer details in Fantastic Beasts 2 you might've missed. Spoilers ahead!

The sweeping new shots of an unfettered Hogwarts probably made for a very welcome sight for Harry Potter fans who cringed with every artifact's destruction in the Second Wizarding War in Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The bridge is shown intact, the towers are still cresting above the mountainous terrain, the Great Hall is perfectly lit by floating candles, and, of course, Dumbledore's office is still filled with so many of his intriguing tools of the trade.

The scenes involving young Dumbledore also featured a few namedrops that will ring familiar to fans. First, there's the instruction for the students to go with Professor McGonagall, who we all know and love so well from the Harry Potter series. Then, one student's name is called out as Mclaggen, who must be the ancestor of a tertiary Gryffindor student from the original series, whose family lineage was known to be significant. Judging by the boy's wily behavior in the scene, the younger version got his reputation for being a handful honestly.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald also turned what we knew about an old Harry Potter character on its head when it revealed that Nagini was not always the snake sidekick of the Dark Lord. Instead, she was formerly a person with the Maledictus curse, which meant that she shape-shifted into snake form and one day would not be able to change back.

There's a running theory that she might turn out to be Tom Riddle's mother before it's all said and done. It would certainly explain the allegiance she develops for the character later on — not to mention his own slitted nostrils and gift with parseltongue — if she were to, say, conceive Voldemort with Credence. Per Pottermore, though, Tom's parents were a muggle named Tom Riddle and a witch named Merope Gaunt, so canon doesn't support the idea for now. Regardless, the design of her dress alone may be indicative of where things are going for her. Throughout the film, she wears a dress with a pattern that could easily pass for scales, which has textured ruffles that give her the appearance of a snake shedding its skin. She might spend most of the movie just trying to help Credence find his family, but once he takes Grindelwald's side, she seems to be thinking differently about her friend. Or is she just biding her time until she follows suit? Clearly, she's in some kind of transition, and her sartorial selection certainly reflects that.

The Harry Potter series largely isolated itself to the grounds at Hogwarts, and even when the characters did venture elsewhere, there was a very concentrated effort on their part not to expose themselves to ordinary people. As such, very little from the outside world was ever gleaned by the Potter characters, and outside goings-on had little bearing on what the wizards were up to, except to inspire Mr. Weasley's endless fascination.

In Fantastic Beasts, however, human history is happening around these wizards, and rather than separating the two worlds as strictly, the film incorporates several recognizable moments from history — whether we like it or not. Leta reveals that she and her brother Corvus were on board the Titanic as it went asunder (after she'd baby-swapped him for a less colicky child, which ultimately cost him his life). If that image of the sinking ship wasn't enough, Grindelwald proceeds to conjure up images of all the terrible things humans are about to do to convince his fellow wizards that they need to take the reins of civilization before it all happens. Among the images are scenes of World War II, including a glimpse of Holocaust victims being marched to the camps and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and/or Nagasaki. There's a latent suggestion that he might have been able to prevent these atrocities if he'd been successful in his plans for world domination.

The big twist at the end of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is what we learn about Credence's family history. After narrowly escaping capture in the first film, he spends this movie trying to track down the identity of his real parents and why they decided to leave him in the care of a horrible woman like Mary Lou Barebone. In the end, he discovers that he isn't the long-lost sibling of Leta LeStrange, as he'd expected, but that he was actually named Aurelius Dumbledore — and his "brother" is trying to destroy him, according to Grindelwald. The implication is that it's Albus Dumbledore, who'd previously only been known to have one brother named Aberforth and a late sister named Ariana.

Grindelwald could just be lying to the boy, though. After all, Dumbledore is the only one who can defeat Grindelwald, and Grindelwald believes Credence is the only person who can take down the great wizard. Perhaps he's trying to recruit Credence to do his dirty work on the basis of an old family drama that doesn't actually exist. It could also be that J.K. Rowling has decided to expand Dumbledore's already dicey family history by bringing in another brother who resents him. Or perhaps Credence is related to a different Dumbledore, like Albus' aunt or even Ariana, before she met her tragic end. One way or the other, Harry Potter fans know Aurelius Dumbledore isn't a name that's been talked about before this movie, and we'll have to see where this goes.