When Warner Bros announced that they would be making a Harry Potter prequel series based on JK Rowling’s book, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I was ecstatically intrigued. As with most young adults, Harry Potter has a special place in my heart having grown up with the films and the books. It has that childhood nostalgia factor and is the perfect blend of everyday life with fantasy. It is such a unique world to get absorbed in, allowing us to escape to a world much like our own, except wizards, witches and fantastic beasts are real. As such, divulging into the history and the rest of the Wizarding World was a fantastical concept. So far, the Fantastic Beasts films have been received relatively positively. They’ve provided fans with not only a new story, but have explored how the Wizarding World operates in different countries and have made the relationship between wizards and non-wizards evermore complex. Secrets of Dumbledore explores these things further, in addition to fulfilling its titular promise by providing us with, well, secrets of Dumbledore.
The film is set several years after Crimes of Grindelwald, and follows Newt (Eddie Redmayne) and Dumbledore (Jude Law) as they attempt to dampen dark wizard Gelert Grindelwald’s (Mads Mikkelsen) rise to power. It inevitably provides us new creatures, places, and characters which are the film’s main assets. The film also begins to divulge more into the backstories of some familiar Potter characters, such as Dumbledore of course, but also his brother Aberforth. Given that they seem to bringing Dumbledore to the forefront of the story, and given the various other subtle connections the films have been making to their predecessors, I’m sure we can expect to see some tidy set up for Harry Potter by the last Fantastic Beasts film. Since Newt has already published his book by the end of the first film, perhaps we will get a glimpse into what he does with his life between these movies and the Potter movies. In fact, it would be brilliant if one day Warner Bros gave us a TV series about Newt either documenting the beasts before the film in the lead-up to his book, or collecting new beasts after the Fantastic Beasts films have concluded. I have no doubt the final film will have Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s climatic duel which won Dumbledore the elder wand. Perhaps this is the event that will earn him the place of headmaster at Hogwarts, as well as an apt description on a chocolate frog card. Since Secrets of Dumbledore takes place in 1932, and Dumbledore and Grindelwald’s famous duel took place in 1945 (according to the books), perhaps we will get a glimpse at another certain dark wizard in his early years at Hogwarts. The wizard in question of course is Tom Riddle, who according to the books attended Hogwarts between 1938 and 1945, the years that the last two Fantastic Beasts films will likely be set. It would be interesting to see one of the younger Tom Riddle actors from the Harry Potter films reprise their role, and with the amount of connections the Fantastic Beasts films are making, it wouldn’t surprise me if we had at least a cameo.
Whilst I’m thoroughly enjoying exploring the history of the Wizarding World and the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, I can’t help but feel the films are beginning to lose their ‘Fantastic Beasts’ element. The beasts are almost taking a backseat to the main story, which slightly undermines the name of the franchise. As mentioned before, perhaps one day Warner Bros will quench fans’ thirst for more beasts and create a series or film about Newt collecting the beasts for his book. Nevertheless, each instalment has provided us with new, unique beasts which have played some role in the story, and I have no doubt we can expect to see more in the last two instalments of the franchise. Secrets of Dumbledore has got me looking forward to seeing more wizarding communities around the world, new fantastics beasts, and left me pondering on the fates of the characters in the lead up to the rise of Voldemort.
G does Films 