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Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Is Already Giving Us Chills

And it’s only going to get colder

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2 premiered in 2011 and the world just hasn’t been the same since. Tears were shed on the red carpet and in theaters as everyone bid farewell to Hogwarts, its students and its professors. It marked the end of an era we still haven’t really let go of, which is why Fantastic Beasts has been a very welcome addition.

The first Fantastic Beasts movie premiered in 2016 and while there were high expectations, the team behind the film was able to deliver on almost every aspect. Yes, the magic that we grew up watching was as beautiful as we remembered, but it also opened up a darker yet more fantastical world.

The title

It was recently revealed that the second film is officially called Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. The title alone lets us know that the film will focus a lot on Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) and it’s estimated that his time under MACUSA won’t last very long. More importantly, it looks as if he’s still hell-bent on revealing the wizarding community to the non-magical world.

As such, we are expecting Grindelwald to escape custody and start gathering followers for his cause – though many of them don’t know his real intent is to have pure-blood wizards to rule over non-magical beings. And since it’s already been established in the Harry Potter books that the rise if Grindelwald was a dark time for their world, we know things are going to go down.

The cast

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will introduce us to a young Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law), who we know has a tight history with Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne). Dumbledore fought against the expulsion of Newt and in the latest textbook edition of the franchise, Newt described his professor as “more than a school teacher.”

In the official cast photo, it can be seen that Grindelwald is holding a familiar and textured wand, which is likely to be the Elder Wand. We know from the books that Grindelwald stole the same from wandmaker Gregorovitch, but also that Dumbledore eventually takes hold of it.

The image also gave us a look at Theseus Scamander (Callum Turner) and his fiancé Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz). Claudia Kim plays an unnamed character who is mysteriously described as a “Maledictus,” a person who carries the curse of turning into a wild beast.

One of the biggest surprises, however, is that Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) is still in the picture. Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them ended on a slight cliffhanger that indicated Credence was killed by his own Obscurus, a dark and uncontrollable force that formed because he was repressing his powers.

There are also a few characters that weren’t included in the cast photo. Particularly, we know that Philosopher’s Stone creator Nicolas Flamel is also in the movie.

The timing and the cities

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald takes place just a few months after the first film, in 1927. But while we’re thrilled that the twenties are still a big part of the franchise, we’re excited that the characters will explore beyond New York and into Paris and London as well.

There’s a lot on the line for the magical world that JK Rowling created, but our hopes are high and our wands are ready. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will hit theaters in November 2018.

Image via facebook.com/fantasticbeastsmovie

Adie Pieraz

grew up with numbers but fell in love with words by the time she reached her teenage years. She likes to surround herself with mellow music, delicious food and funny fail videos.