After a functional (but I consider an unspectacular first installment), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the second bow, The Crimes of Grindelwald, is giving the people what they want: Young Dumbledore, and lots of him. Oh and he’s HOT… Of course he is, the eventual Hogwarts headmaster Dumbledore is played by none other than British actor Jude Law…
Oo-er!
In the recently-released stunning trailer, (beautiful as it looks), ‘The Crimes of Grindelwald’ will be the most controversial in the Harry Potter canon so far. Fans have reacted strongly to the decision to cast Johnny Depp as the villain, Gellert Grindelwald, after his settling charges of domestic abuse during his contentious divorce in 2015.
In the trailer, Eddie Redmayne returns as the charmingly clumsy Newt Scamander, while Law makes his Wizarding World debut as a young Albus Dumbledore. It’s teased that Scamander is acting under orders from Dumbledore to head to Paris, but as the future-Hogwarts headmaster notes, Scamander isn’t one for taking orders well.
The David Yates film follows Dumbledore and Scamander, his former student, as they join forces to recapture an escaped Gellert Grindelwald, played by Depp, who is on a mission to dominate all non-magical people with the help of his pureblood wizard followers.
“I can’t move against Grindelwald,” Dumbledore tells Scamander in the clip. “It has to be you.”
The trailer debuted amid casting controversy surrounding Depp, who was accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife, Amber Heard, in court filings. Rowling, has since defended the decision to cast Depp on Twitter, citing both Heard’s and Depp’s desires to move on.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald marks Yates’ fifth foray into the Wizarding World. He previously directed the last four movies in the original Harry Potter franchise, as well as the first Fantastic Beasts installment. His is set to direct the remaining three movies rounding out the Fantastic Beasts saga, with Rowling continuing on as a screenwriter.
Additionally, there’s been something of a backlash after it was revealed the ‘romantic history’ between Dumbledore and Grindewald would not be explored in this movie. Because they’re setting that up for a later film? Who knows, but author JK Rowling definitely teased the press on the subject when she told a press conference “I can’t tell you everything …..but I will say that you will see Dumbledore as a younger man and quite a troubled man because he wasn’t always the sage. He was always very clever… but we’ll see him at what I think was the formative period of his life. As far as his sexuality is concerned, watch this space.”
We still have a very long wait for this film with a very long title….‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindelwald’ will be released on November 16th.
