Comic-Con International: San Diego 2018 had trailers not only for fans of superheroes this year, but also those who love the Wizarding World created by J.K. Rowling. At the Warner Bros.’ panel on Saturday, much of the cast came out to share the trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
While the first Fantastic Beasts was fairly light and slightly madcap in tone, its sequel promises to be much more serious. Gellert Grindelwald has escaped custody and is at large, bent on completing his plan of eliminating all Muggles and starting a war between wizards and Muggles in the process.
The trailer opens with a flashback to Newt Scamander’s (Eddie Redmayne) days at Hogwarts with Albus Dumbeldore (Jude Law) as his professor, showing how the friendship between the two would have started. Later on, Dumbledore tells Newt that he is the only one who can stop Grindelwald, hinting at Dumbledore’s struggle with his feelings about his former friend and love.
Most of the action in this film takes place in Paris in 1927, a few months after the events of the first film. We see a lot familiar faces including Queenie and Tina Goldstein (Alison Sudol and Katherine Waterston), Jacob Kowalski (Dan Folger), and of course Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) himself. In what may be a surprise to some, Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) is back, showing that his character did not die in the first film. If that is anything to go by, it seems like Credence will be giving our characters quite a bit of trouble as well.
We also meet for the first time Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz), Newt’s former love who is now engaged to his brother Theseus (Callum Turner). From what we see in the trailer and what we know of the Lestrange family, it looks like Leta may keep her allegiances close to her chest.
There seem to be quite a few more ties to Harry Potter this time around in addition to the aforementioned scene from Hogwarts. Dumbledore is seen looking into the Mirror of Erised, a magical device that shows the deepest, most desperate desire of the heart of the person who looks into it. In “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” Harry looked into it and saw his parents. The fact that Dumbledore sees Grindelwald when he looks into it is quite telling as to their relationship as well, or at least his desire for their relationship to have been. We also meet Nicolas Famel (Brontis Jodorowsky), who we learn of in the same Harry Potter book, as who created the Sorcerer’s Stone with the assistance of Dumbledore.
The best part of the trailer is that it looks like there are quite a plethora of magical creatures, old and new, to look forward to!
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald will be in theaters November 16.
Comic-Con International: San Diego (SDCC)
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