Fatastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald - Prerelease Thread

[JD]

The sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald is the 2nd film in the Harry Potter prequel series, and the 10th film in the overall JK Rowling's Wizarding World franchise.
We don't have an official synopsis, but we do know from the title and comments from the people involved that this one will focus on the conflict with the Dark Wizard Gellert Grindlewald, who made a brief appearance at the end of the first Fantastic Beast.

Returning Cast:
Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander
Katherine Waterston as Porpentina "Tina" Goldstein
Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski
Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein
Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone
Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald
Carmen Ejogo as Serephina Picquery
Kevin Guthry as Mr. Abernathy

New Cast, with descriptions from the film's Wikipedia page:
Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore: An extremely influential and powerful wizard in the British wizarding Community, known in the British Ministry of Magic and throughout the wider wizarding world for his academic excellence, current professor of Transfiguration at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Has a long lasting and mysterious relationship with the Dark wizard Grindelwald, that ended on a tragic note. Strong ally of Newt Scamander's, called to resist Grindelwald's reign of terror.

Zoe Kravitz as Leta Lestrange: A damaged and confused young woman who still exerts a large amount of control over Newt, who was at one time in love with her, and possibly still is. Risked the life of a student at school, responsible for the outcasting of Newt from some circles of British wizarding society after he took the blame for a misdemeanor of hers. From a historically wealthy and pureblood family famous for the Dark Arts. She is currently engaged to Theseus Scamander.

Callum Turner as Theseus Scamander: Involved in the Auror Office of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, fought in World War I alongside his brother, described as a "war hero". Older brother of Newt Scamander. The two share a tentatively warm relationship, slightly marred by the fact that the two can't quite understand each other. Has spent the year hunting Grindelwald with a team of British Aurors. He is currently engaged to Leta Lestrange.

Claudia Kim as Maledictus: the carrier of a blood curse that destines her ultimately to transform into a beast. She is the main attraction of the wizarding circus and freakshow.

Olafur Darri Olafsson as Skender: The head of a wizarding circus and freakshow.

Derek Riddell as Torquil Travers: A significant dark wizard, has family members who later take part in Lord Voldemort's Death Eater organization and fight in the first and second Wizarding wars in 1970's and 1990's Britain.

Poppy-Corby Teuch as Rosier: A witch related to the Black family, eventual member of Lord Voldemort's Knights of Walpurgis organization, who later fight in the first and second Wizarding Wars to gain pureblood supremacy.

Brontis Jodorowsky as Nicholas Flamel: a 14th century Parisian scribe believed to have discovered the philosopher's stone. Strong friend and colleague of Albus Dumbledore's.

Ingvar Eggert Sigurosson as Grimmson: a powerful bounty hunter

William Nadylam as Yusuf Kama: a wizard

David Sakurai as Krall: an ambitious and sulky henchman of Grindelwald

Wolf Roth as Spielman

Victoria Yeates as Bunty

Cornell John as Arnold Guzman

Fiona Glascott as ?

Jessica Williams as ?

Along with announcing the title, they also released a new cast picture today.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I hadn't seen the subtitle for the film yet, so that's a nice bit of news.

I really enjoyed the first one, so this one should be good, too. I'm especially happy Katherine Waterston is returning because I loved her character.

No matter the size of her role, I'm very amused and happy that Jessica Williams has a role in the film after getting the chance to celebrate with J.K. Rowling their shared birthday.

 

[JD]

I think the title was just announced today.
The character whose return I'm most curious about is Jacob. Didn't the first one end with his memory of everything that happened being erased?
I just noticed I missed the n in fantastic, is there a way for me to edit the title or do I need a mod to do it?

 

[M.A.C.O.]

From left to right

Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore

Ezra Miller as Credence Barebone

Claudia Kim as Maledictus

Zoe Kravitz as Leeta Lestrange

Callum Turner as Thesus Scamander - Newt's elder brother

Katherine Waterston as Porpentina "Tina" Goldstein

Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander

Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski

Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein

Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I just noticed I missed the n in fantastic, is there a way for me to edit the title or do I need a mod to do it?

You can do it yourself: Go to the Thread Tools at the top of the thread and click "Edit title."

 

[Christopher]

Jude Law as Albus Dumbledore: ... Has a long lasting and mysterious relationship with the Dark wizard Grindelwald, that ended on a tragic note.

"Mysterious relationship?" I hope that doesn't mean "We're never going to come right out and say they were lovers."

Claudia Kim

Oooooooooo. Always glad to see her.

The character whose return I'm most curious about is Jacob. Didn't the first one end with his memory of everything that happened being erased?

This wouldn't be the first sequel to undo a character's memory wipe.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Some of those actors' names sound like they can be characters in the movie too.

Can't wait!

 

[gblews]

I absolutely love the Potterverse (never read the books) and loved Fantastic Beasts, so i'm really looking for ward to this sequel. I thought the acting was superb in Beasts. I was especially taken with Allison Sudol's Queenie. Such a charismatic performance. But they were ALL great.

So, I wonder if Leta Lestrange is Belatrix' mom or grandmother. Although Johnny Depp has has a run of flops and bad publicity, I think he is still a superior actor, so I'm anxious to see his Grindlewald.

Excited about this.

 

[Skywalker]

The inclusion of the "Fantastic Beasts" title is both really awkward and unnecessary. Doesn't really sound like this movie's going to involve magical creatures to the extent that the previous movie did.

 

[Lakenheath 72]

Jacob has vague recollections of his time in the magical world. This is shown by his bakery goods at the end of the last movie.

 

[Christopher]

The inclusion of the "Fantastic Beasts" title is both really awkward and unnecessary.

Tell that to the makers of the Thin Man and Pink Panther sequels. Plus, the first Jurassic Park sequel wasn't set in the park, the kid in Home Alone 2 was neither home nor alone, several of the Police Academy sequels did not involve the academy, several of the Halloween and Friday the 13th sequels were not set on those dates, etc.

Anyway, I think that as long as Newt Scamander is the lead character of the series, there will be some involvement of fantastic beasts. It sounds like Claudia Kim's character may be one herself. (I do think she's pretty fantastic.)

 

[M.A.C.O.]

The character whose return I'm most curious about is Jacob. Didn't the first one end with his memory of everything that happened being erased?

This wouldn't be the first sequel to undo a character's memory wipe.

Jacob has vague recollections of his time in the magical world. This is shown by his bakery goods at the end of the last movie.

I believe it was said that the venom they used to mind wipe New York would be most effective on removing bad memories. Jacob had himself a grand and magical adventure. Compared to the rest of New York who paid witness to murder, mayhem, black clouds of destruction and things beyond their comprehension. We saw Jacob retained some memories of the creatures he saw, and had lingering memories of Queenie, when he recognized her and smiled.

That could explain how Jacob returns to fold in the sequel.

So, I wonder if Leta Lestrange is Belatrix' mom or grandmother. Although Johnny Depp has has a run of flops and bad publicity, I think he is still a superior actor, so I'm anxious to see his Grindlewald.

Excited about this.

Possible but unlikely.

Belatrix married into the Lestrange family. Her maiden name was Black. She's Sirius' cousin, remember.

Recall the nature of pure blood families in the HP world. The aristocratic, self aggrandized, prestige they cloaked themselves with. Belatrix has 2 sisters. Belatrix married into the Lestange family. Narcissa married into the Malfoy family. She's Draco's mother. Lastly, there is Andromeda. She married a muggle-born wizard and was disowned by her family as a result. She is the mother of Nymphadora Tonks.

The Lestrange's are known throughout the wizarding world for being "off" and a little crazy. Mostly due to intermarriage among a small number of UK pure blood families for centuries. According to JK, Belatrix wasn't actually crazy or suffering from mental instability. She was playing the part, because he last name was Lestrange.

 

[Christopher]

I'm still wondering -- are the Fantastic Beasts movies canonical to the book Potterverse, the film Potterverse, or both? After all, there are some differences between the book and film continuities. Since these are WB movies, you'd expect them to be in the movie continuity -- but since they're written by Rowling herself, that makes it less clear.

 

[DigificWriter]

Given that Rowling retconned some of the details of her novels based on the movies, I'd personally be inclined to say that everything, for her, exists as part of the same interconnected reality; the films just differ from the novels in a few places as far as specific details are concerned.

 

[Christopher]

Given that Rowling retconned some of the details of her novels based on the movies, I'd personally be inclined to say that everything, for her, exists as part of the same interconnected reality; the films just differ from the novels in a few places as far as specific details are concerned.

That doesn't follow. There are lots of cases of two different versions of a continuity borrowing ideas from each other -- for instance, the Superman comics borrowing Jimmy Olsen and Perry White from radio, or Marvel incorporating Coulson and the Agents of SHIELD characters into its main comics continuity. So just being influenced by each other doesn't make them the same reality.

Of course, in this case, the differences between the prose and film Potter universes are subtle, but they're there. So I'm just wondering if there's a consensus in the Potter community on which version the new films align with.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Fatastic news!

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

That doesn't follow. There are lots of cases of two different versions of a continuity borrowing ideas from each other -- for instance, the Superman comics borrowing Jimmy Olsen and Perry White from radio, or Marvel incorporating Coulson and the Agents of SHIELD characters into its main comics continuity. So just being influenced by each other doesn't make them the same reality.

Of course, in this case, the differences between the prose and film Potter universes are subtle, but they're there. So I'm just wondering if there's a consensus in the Potter community on which version the new films align with.

Given the time gap, I think that it connects in "broad strokes" at most to either the "book verse" (fully canon) or film verse (semi canon at best), but overall IMO - the screenplay (tho not necessarily the fine detail of the props or VFX) is fully book canon as it is written by JKR herself.

 

[Christopher]

I'm not asking for individual opinions; I'm wondering if there's any official word on the question, if we know what Rowling herself thinks about it.

Anyway, I disagree that anything the creator of a canon in one medium writes in a different medium is automatically part of the former canon. Writers are perfectly capable of adapting their work to fit in more than one continuity. For instance, Dennis O'Neil, Len Wein, and other DC Comics creators wrote the scripts to several Batman: The Animated Series adaptations of their own comics, but they rewrote them to fit the B:TAS continuity, which was a different reality from the comics. Robert J. Sawyer consulted on and wrote an episode of the TV series based on his novel FlashForward, even though the series was only very, very loosely based on his novel. And there have been novelists who've participated in the movie adaptations of their works -- Stephen King, for example -- while still changing the content of their books to work for the screen, since you can't adapt a novel into a movie without making substantial changes and trims.

A canon is a specific subset of a writer's work, not a barrier that constricts the writer's work. So a writer is free to write things outside that canon anytime she wants to.

 

[Shamrock Holmes]

I'm still wondering -- are the Fantastic Beasts movies canonical to the book Potterverse, the film Potterverse, or both? After all, there are some differences between the book and film continuities. Since these are WB movies, you'd expect them to be in the movie continuity -- but since they're written by Rowling herself, that makes it less clear.

For "movie canon" - They are movies, made by the same studio as the HP movies.
For "book canon" - They are word-for-word primary adaptions written by JK Rowling, like the books, whereas the HP movies are secondary adaptions written by Steve Kloves (except for Order of the Phoenix which was written by Michael Goldenberg).

I'm not asking for individual opinions; I'm wondering if there's any official word on the question, if we know what Rowling herself thinks about it.

Not as far as I'm aware, the closest to an "official position" is Pottermore, which borrows elements from the books and the movies (although IFAIK the later only happens if book material is unavailable).

Therefore, unless and until JKR writes a new prose novel (which would implicitly have "higher canon") that contradicts something from the FB series then I think we should assume that the screenplay is part of book canon.

 

[Christopher]

Canon is not about fans' assumptions. That's the exact opposite of what the word means. If you can't point me to an actual statement from Rowling or Warner Bros., then you don't have an answer to my question.