Fantastic Beasts 3 - What We Know So Far

When Harry Potter fans first caught wind that we would all be transported back to the wizarding world via a brand new franchise, the general response was excitement mixed with trepidation. After all, how do you follow the fourth highest-grossing movie franchise of all time, a story that conjures not just millions of dollars but very strong emotions and an almost cult-like following? Could the fans who know what Hogwarts house they're in, what their patronus is, and the correct way to pronounce wingardium leviosa possibly feel as deeply about a new story?

At the moment, the answer is foggier than a convention of Dementors. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them earned a respectable worldwide box office take of $814 million in 2016. On the other hand, the 2018 sequel Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald took a less impressive $653 million, and failed to land with critics and audiences alike. 

Like many of the other movies in the Harry Potter universe, Crimes of Grindelwald attempted to weave together many plot lines and characters, but instead of feeling like a tapestry worthy of a place in the Great Hall, it ultimately felt like a mess. Since then, the intrigue around the third of the projected five Fantastic Beasts films is focused not only on what will become of the characters — and how it could possibly tie into the Harry Potter story — but on whether the team can turn the tide of opinion to Dumbledore levels of optimism once again.

One possible cause of complication with the script is the addition of new co-writer Steve Kloves. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling wrote the other two films alone — an impressive gig for her script-writing debut! However, Warner Bros. are clearly hoping that Kloves can sprinkle a little magic into the Fantastic Beasts franchise. 

Rowling has enough imagination and world-building talents to fill Hermione's enchanted endless bag, and Kloves may just have the screenwriting chops to help showcase those skills to their greatest effects. He adapted all but one of the Harry Potter books into films, and also wrote the screenplay for his own directorial debut, 1989's The Fabulous Baker Boys. He was less successful at turning another beloved legacy character into an onscreen hero, but the less said about The Amazing Spider-Man the better.

Beyond the page and behind the camera, David Yates is returning to the director role he held in the last two Fantastic Beasts movies and the last four Harry Potter films. In a November 2018 interview with Empire, Yates was excited about the script — at least as it stood then —  and promised "there's a lot to come in the next story."

Fantastic Beasts fans will be delighted (if unsurprised) to know that the cast's main players are all returning. The ever diplomatic Eddie Redmayne — Newt Scamander himself — said at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2019 that he was excited to start filming, even though he wasn't sure exactly when it would happen. Katherine Waterston, who plays American Auror Tina Goldstein, will also return for the third movie, along with Alison Sudol as her Legilimens sister Queenie, Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, and Callum Turner as Newt's brother Theseus.

Another unsurprising but controversial return is Johnny Depp. Once a surefire choice for a big budget family fantasy franchise thanks to his role as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, Depp's reputation was tarnished in 2016 when his now-ex-wife Amber Heard filed a restraining order against him. In December 2018 — about a month into Crimes of Grindelwald's theatrical run — Heard wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post about her personal experience with domestic violence. Although she didn't name Depp, he responded by suing her for $50 million for defamation. In April 2019, Heard submitted further evidence of the alleged abuse to the court. Warner Bros. has so far stuck by Depp, but the continued controversy has become a source of tension for the studio.

If you rolled up to Crimes of Grindelwald excited to see Dope Queen (and massive Harry Potter fan) Jessica Williams, you likely rolled out disappointed. The actress, comedian, podcaster, and former Daily Show correspondent was indeed in the movie, but only in the pages of a book (albeit one that moved and talked) and had barely any screen time.

However, you might still want to fork out for a ticket for the sequel, since Williams will apparently have a much bigger role in the future film. We already know a little more about her character than you may have gleaned from that brief cameo. In November 2018, Rowling tweeted a photo of herself and Williams, apparently taken at the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, identifying Williams as Professor Eulalie "Lally" Hicks, of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Ilvermorny is the North American version of Hogwarts, sequestered somewhere on a mountain and concealed in muggle-fooling fog (so don't expect to stumble across it). 

Although the specifics of Hicks' expanded role in the franchise is unclear, she's obviously a woman of action and anti-Grindelwald — she's the one who inspired Nicolas Flamel to help the imperiled group of fighters escape from Grindelwald's army, and save Paris at the same time. It's a promising start, but they're still going to need to make up for the Williams-lite Crimes of Grindelwald.

One puzzling question hanging in the air as we wait for the next film is whether Albus knew that Credence/Aurelius was his brother. If he did, it's odd that he wouldn't mention it. For his part, David Yates doesn't believe he knew. The director told Empire that sometimes even Albus is in the dark, and that they worked from this assumption when filming.

As to whether Credence/Aurelius really is his brother, there are a few clues. Rowling likes to give her characters names with significance: for example, the star Sirius is also called the Dog Star, and animagus Sirius Black turns into a black dog. Ariana, Albus, and Aurelius all have similar meanings — Ariana is the Portguese form of Ariadne, meaning "most holy"; Albus means "bright" in Latin; and Aurelius means "golden, gilded" (for what it's worth, Credence means "to trust or believe"). This could be a coincidence, but there are few coincidences in Rowling's carefully planned world.

The main evidence disputing Credence's true identity as Aurelius lies not in magic, but in math. Ezra Miller has said that Credence was 18 in 1926, but we know that Albus' mother Kendra died in 1899, and his father was imprisoned in Azkaban in around 1891. Either there's some wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff going on, or Credence isn't Albus' brother (or he's an obscurus).

Speaking of Crimes of Grindelwald women we really need to hear more from, fans are wondering whether Nagini is going to tell her story in the next film. Rowling faced backlash when the Crimes of Grindelwald trailer revealed that Nagini was played by South Korean actress Claudia Kim. Some felt that having an Asian woman playing someone who we know eventually becomes Lord Voldemort's loyal slave played in to stereotypes of Asian women as submissive. On top of that, the fact that she transforms into a snake recalled to some another Asian stereotype: the Dragon Lady. The fact she was apparently in a cage, performing for a leering crowd, did not assuage their concern.

At the time, Rowling defended her choice, tweeting that her source of inspiration were the Naga, which she described as "snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology... sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake." She pointed out that Indonesians come from many different ethnic backgrounds (although she didn't specifically cite South Korea). This doesn't entirely clear things up, given that before we knew the identity of Kim's character, she was identified not as a Naga but a Maledictus: someone cursed to eventually transform permanently into an animal. The next film may prove a chance to clear up Rowling's intentions and answer these criticisms.