While it’s uplifting to see that not much has changed in terms of the cast, apart from exchanging Mads Mikkelsen for Johnny Depp, one has to wonder how far ahead things are going to be pushed in terms of the Harry Potter story now that things are progressing toward the war that is, essentially, between Grindlewald and Dumbledore. The whole idea of Grindlewald stating that the war is against the muggles is by and large true in his thinking, but the undercurrent is that there are those that practice magic who get along with muggles, and those who practice magic that want to rule or eliminate muggles. From looking at the trailer it would appear that Dumbledore is trying to keep things under wraps as much as possible, but Grindlewald is ready to let Credence loose since he can’t strike at Dumbledore directly. This showdown is going to be interesting to watch since it would appear that unless Credence is going to go full force against Dumbledore, the famed teacher, not yet a headmaster, will be able to stand his ground and withstand anything that’s thrown at him.
Dan Fogler continues to be a part of the equation even after everything he’s been through, and it suits the story really to have a muggle be a part of something that will involve non-magical folks, but the presentation of a wand feels like it might be a placebo, rather than an actual weapon, defensive or otherwise, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens. Whatever the case, Jacob Kowalski has become a fun character in these movies and it would be interesting to see there’s any legacy that he leaves behind when it’s all said and done. One desire of a lot of fans is to see how this movie will continue to build the connection between the past and the movies that have already been released since this connection is important and a lot of people are going to want to see it realized.
It’s likely going to be a little difficult to get used to seeing Mads Mikkelsen in the role of Grindelwald, but there’s a good chance that people will simply accept since enough news has been spread about the switch and why it happened, not to mention the fact that Mikkelsen has been outstanding in every role he’s taken throughout the years. The magical fights do appear to be quite detailed and will hopefully take up a good portion of the movie, but it’s easy to think that there will be a great deal of exposition since there are characters that still need to be introduced, characters that need to be updated just a bit thanks to what happened in the last movie, and a lot of stories yet to tell. For instance, the idea that Credence might be a Dumbledore could be real, or it could be a seriously devious lie that Grindlewald told Credence to get him to hate Dumbledore with even greater intensity. Many people have been questioning this since the end of the last movie, and for good reason. But it does look as though we’ll get a better look at Aberforth, the middle child of the Dumbledore family. Obviously, he still doesn’t have a lot of regard for his older brother, but maybe we’ll learn a little more about this relationship.
Throughout the last movie, it does feel as though the story moved away from Newt Scamander a bit, even though he’s still a central character. With the way, things expanded it’s not too hard to see how this could happen and why people would embrace it. While Newt was definitely one of the main attractions of the first movie, the second introduced a great number of elements to the overall story that people either recognized or recalled from the Harry Potter movies due to their various connections. One thing that is looking more and more likely is that the movies will either continue or an attempt will be made to connect the Fantastic Beasts timeline with that of Harry Potter, which would be great since it could hopefully offer a lead-in to Tom Riddle as well and the start of the war that eventually brought Harry Potter into the mix.
The third Fantastic Beasts movie has been talked about since the end of the second movie, and there are no doubt theories that have been concocted that will end up being right, while others will fall by the way as the movie unveils to keep the adventure alive. But whatever happens, there are already a few constants that are bound to keep appearing as the ideas keep rolling out. It would be great to see a few more things explained as the movie progresses, but there are some elements that might be better left as mysteries.
