As you likely know, last year’s Fantastic Beasts And Where to Find Them was not a stand-alone prequel to the Harry Potter series, and principal photography for the first sequel has begun at Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden in the U.K. The first film saw the adventures of Newt Scamander in New York as he tried to release some of his creatures back into their natural habitat, only for many of them to escape and run rampant around 1920’s New York. It also saw the unmasking of American Auror Percival Graves as the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, who was last seen being taken into custody by the American wizarding authority MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA).
Fantastic Beasts 2 will move the action from New York to London and Paris, apparently 
giving some “surprising” nods to Harry Potter. The film will see the return of Johnny Depp as Grindelwald, hinting that his character will escape custody. Fans of Harry Potter know that Grindelwald has ties to Albus Dumbledore, who will be played by Jude Law. Eddie Redmayne will reprise his role as Newt Scamander, as well as Katherine Waterston as Tina Goldstein, Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein, and Zoe Kravitz as Leta Lestrange. Kravitz’s character was previously only glimpsed in a photograph that Redmayne’s Scamander had in the first film. Some surprise returns to the cast include Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski and Ezra Miller as Credence Barebones. These two maybe be seen as surprises because Fogler’s Kowalski lost his memory of all things magical at the end, though he seemed to have a flicker of memory when Queenie visited his bakery. Miller’s character seemed to be destroyed at the the end, though Newt saw a bit of black matter escape the subway tunnel, hinting that maybe Credence did not perish after all.
New characters will be joining the franchise as well. William Nadylam will play a 
wizard named Yusuf Kama, Ingvar Sigurdsson will play a bounty hunter, Claudia Kim will be an attraction at a magical circus, Kevin Guthrie as Abernathy, the boss of MACUSA, and Olafur Darri Olafsson will be Skender, the owner of the magic circus. The film will also feature Callum Turner as Theseus Scamander, Newt’s older brother who was mentioned to be an Auror and a war hero.
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them 2 will take place in 1927, a few months after the events of the first movie, and will see Dumbledore seeking to stop Grindelwald with the help of his former student Newt Scamander as Grindelwald works to gather more witches and wizards to his cause. The screenplay was again written by author J.K. Rowling, and David Yates is also returning to direct.
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them 2 is scheduled for release November 16, 2018.
What did you think of the first Fantastic Beasts movie? Will you be seeing the sequels? Let us know in the comments!
