Fantastic Beasts and Where it Goes

Thanksgiving weekend is the unofficial start of the holiday movie season. So I have done my duty and seen two films this weekend, Moana and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Moana was awesome. Just really, really great. Go see it. It’s funny, visually stunning, uplifting, empowering, moving, you name it.

Fantastic Beasts was good. For my money, not as good as Moana, but good. I could go on about what I liked and didn’t like, things I thought could have been done better, things that were done really well, but I’d rather talk about what I think is going to happen next.

SPOILER ALERT–If you haven’t seen Fantastic Beasts and are planning on doing so, do not keep reading, as I’ll be discussing some of the secrets of the movie below.

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I’M SERIOUS–TOTAL SPOILER ALERT–LAST WARNING

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OK, here’s what we know. There are going to be five movies. Newt is going to be in most, if not all, of them, but may not be the main character in all of them. The series will take us through the Great Wizarding War where Grindelwald and his minions play the part of Voldemort and the Death Eaters and take on the Wizarding World. It will end in 1945 with the epic duel between Grindelwald and Dumbledore.

What else do we know? Well, how about the fact revealed by J.K. Rowling that Dumbledore was gay and had a relationship with Grindelwald? Which will make that final battle even more intense.

We know that Credence did not die in FB, and he will return in FB2 as an evil wizard. Also, Leta Lestrange (grandmother? great grandmother? of Beatrix Lestrange) will appear in FB2 as an evil wizard. Newt was once in love with Leta, so there’s some lovely tension there as well.

We’ve been told FB2 takes place in Paris. Are we going to get a different setting for each movie? Grindelwald’s fortress is supposedly in Switzerland, so will FB5 take place there?

Dumbledore has already been mentioned as being one of Newt’s teachers at Hogwarts, so he’s in the picture and will eventually be making an appearance, especially if he’s to fall in love/duel Grindelwald in the end. But will anyone else show up that we know?

From a time-line perspective, we could certainly meet a very young Tom Riddle. If Chamber of Secrets (2002) took place 50 years after Tom Riddle first opened the Chamber, that means he was at Hogwarts in 1952. He has to be at least 11 to be in Hogwarts. So in 1945 he is at least 6., possibly older. If Tom was in his final year at Hogwarts when he opened the Chamber, then he’d be a First Year in 1945.

Also, we know at least two other professors who were at Hogwarts in 1952. McGonagall was in the Tom Riddle flashbacks in Chamber of Secrets, and we know that Slughorn explained the concept of the Horcruxes to him from a flashback in Half-Blood Prince. So there’s no reason young versions of those two couldn’t make an appearance.

Something at the end of FB5 where Grindelwald passes on the torch of evil to Tom Riddle?

One thing FB didn’t do was give us any glimpse at any other wizardry schools. Hogwarts is mentioned, as is the American version whose name I forget, but we don’t visit. I would say it is entirely possible that we won’t visit any schools in this series, except that we know Dumbledore is already a teacher. If he’s to play a part in the series, then it stands to reason we’ll at least visit Hogwarts to meet him.

One of the joys of the HP series was watching Harry, Ron, and Hermione grow up. Well in FB, the main characters are already grown up. But we don’t know where they came from. We don’t know what Newt’s childhood was like, though he hinted that he wasn’t popular. Also, he was expelled from Hogwarts (against Dumbledore’s advice) and yet still has his wand. Hagrid lost his when he was expelled, so why didn’t Newt? I assume we’ll find out.

FB pretty much stands on its own as a film: disaster averted, true villain captured, Newt heading home. I suppose if the film isn’t a huge success, Warner Bros. can cut their losses and stop at one. But as it has already made over $100 million after one week, they’ll greenlight the others and we’ll hopefully dive into the larger story that was truly only hinted at in this one.

I, for one, am excited to see where it goes.