Note: This article has spoilers for both Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald
Over Thanksgiving break, I begrudgingly went to see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald with my family. I had lost interest in the franchise and I had a lot of problems with the film and the screenwriter. Over the years since the original Harry Potter series was at its peak popularity, Rowling has shown true herself, instead of the inclusive, loving, and welcoming person she acted like for many years. However, I was outvoted and wanted to be a good team member so I went along with everyone. How bad could it be? After all, I had enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them and reconciled my decision as a choice to simply get lost in a world of magical creatures under the care of one of my favorite characters in the wizarding world, Newt Scamander. That being said, however, as someone who is always analyzing the media I consume for a deeper meaning, I couldn’t help but notice the treatment of female characters in the film. J.K. Rowling, the producer and screenwriter of the film, wrote the female character storylines to center around helping male characters achieve greatness. Don’t get me wrong, J.K. Rowling is the author of the most successful book series in history if we don’t count the creators of the Bible, fairy tales, or Greek mythology. She gave the world Hermione. Hermione Granger is a book smart badass witch with a heart of gold who paved the way for many strong fictional female characters to serve as role models to adults and kids alike. Yet at the same time, Rowling’s attempt to embark on a new career as a screenwriter hasn’t been as smooth as she may have thought it would be.
The reveal that Claudia Kim would play Nagini caused a big uproar even before the film came out. In the original Harry Potter series, Nagini is Voldemort’s pet snake and one of his seven horcruxes. In Crimes of Grindelwald, Rowling reveals that Nagini was once an Asian woman with a blood curse. Her blood curse makes her turn into a snake on command, but she is destined to remain as a snake forever later on. The Fantastic Beasts series has already come under fire for showing a whitewashed version of New York (in reference to the first film), and their version of Paris in the second movie wasn’t any better. J.K. Rowling attempted to fix this problem by adding three characters of color, two of them women of color. However, both Nagini and Leta Lestrange’s storylines in this film are to help the white main characters development and story arch.
J.K. Rowling’s claims that her decision to cast Nagini as an Asian woman comes from a place of genuine desire to honor Asian mythology. Rowling responded to the controversial casting decision tweeting, “the Naga are snake-like mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name ‘Nagini.’ They are sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half-human, half-snake. Indonesia comprises a few hundred ethnic groups.” Fans countered with two problems with Rowling’s response: (1) Indian author Amish Tripathi corrected Rowling’s claim that Nagas originated from Indonesian mythology saying Nagini is a Sanskrit language word and therefore Naga mythology emerged from India. (2) Other fans pointed out that, whether Nagas are Indian or Indonesian, casting a Korean actress contributes to the problematic Hollywood idea that Asians are interchangeable when it comes to casting. If Rowling was geinunily trying to honor Asian mythology a simple Google search would have cleared up the origins of the Naga.
Like many when I first heard that Nagini was once an Asian woman I was concerned. Having Nagini eventually become the pet of what is essentially a wizard who wants to commit genocide is bad. However, I still had faith in J.K. Rowling’s ability to create an intriguing story for a woman despite her tragic end. Perhaps Nagini would follow a similar storyline as Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom, both of whom had tragic backstories but finds the strength to rise above it and become something greater. Maybe Nagini could be empowered by her transformation into a snake (Taylor Swift did).
Unfortunately, when I watched Crimes of Grindelwald I didn’t see the empowering storyline play out. In fact, I didn’t see any storyline for Nagini except to be a comforting presence to Credence (Ezra Miller), a boy who is obsessed with finding out his true identity at all costs. Nagini walks around with Credence and seems to be his support, but we don’t see why she likes him or why Credence likes Nagini. The pair suddenly appears on screen as friends or maybe more than friends, but Rowling doesn’t write any backstory or even a simple line to explain how they met. When Credence is tempted to become a follower of Grindelwald, Nagini begs him not to turn to the dark side. This is one of the only lines Nagini has in the entire movie. However, Credence joins Grindelwald and leaves Nagini because Grindelwald supposedly can tell Credence his true identity. At the end of the film, Nagini loses her reason [to support Creedence] to be in the film. The audience is left with a bland tokenism character because we do not know anything about her even as something as basic as her last name.
The other woman of color who gets the short end of the stick is Leta Lestrange. The world of Fantastic Beasts is already very white, so seeing Leta as a black woman is a welcome change. However, while her role in Crimes of Grindelwald was important it had nothing to do with her. Leta is in Crimes of Grindelwald because she was romantically involved with Newt Scamander, but now she is engaged with Theseus Scamander. Leta ties together Newt’s main internal conflict (aka the love triangle between Newt, Tina, and Leta) and the sibling animosity between Newt and Theseus. Despite being tied to storylines of the main characters, Rowling’s screenplay focuses on Leta and her supposed ties to Credence’s mysterious identity. Leta’s purpose in the film is to drop a huge amount of exposition to add another twist in Credence’s storyline. Leta reveals that Credence is not the long-lost Lestrange baby who disappeared during a shipwreck while traveling to America as the audience and characters previously thought for three-fourths of the movie. Instead, Leta reveals that she accidentally killed her baby brother when she switched babies in order for her to get a break from constant crying. After revealing this bombshell, Leta’s purpose in the film is fulfilled. She dies to sacrifice herself for the Scamander brothers. In other words, the one black woman is solely in the film to further three white men’s character arcs.
While watching Crimes of Grindelwald, Leta slowly became one of the most interesting characters in the film. I was intrigued by her friendship with Newt as shown in the Hogwarts flashbacks and was excited to explore the idea of a Hufflepuff and Slytherin friendship. She was bullied at Hogwarts and yet does not choose to retaliate as other Slytherins, such as Draco Malfoy, would have chosen to do. Additionally, Leta goes against the stereotype that all Slytherins are evil. Leta even works at the British Ministry of Magic’s Department of Magical Law Enforcement. There were numerous interesting potential storylines Rowling could have chosen for Leta. Instead, Leta was given some of the laziest story beats, including making one of the few black women in the series a product of rape and a victim of bullying at Hogwarts. She has no agency, no story of her own, and is killed when we knew almost nothing about her.
The Goldstein sisters, Tina and Queenie, aren’t any better. In 2014 Rowling confirmed that religion exists in the wizarding world and that there were Jewish wizards attending Hogwarts. While J.K. Rowling never explicitly states the Goldstein sisters are practicing Jews, their surname suggests they have Jewish backgrounds. Queenie’s ability to read minds and her love story with Jacob, a non-wizard in a world where non-wizards and wizards aren’t allowed to marry, had the potential to be a unique storyline JK Rowling has not explored yet. Instead, when the story starts, Queenie has put Jacob under a love spell and they move to Europe because in Europe muggles and wizards are allowed to marry. While the love spell is meant to be a source of comedy it turns into a creepy story where Queenie drugs Jacob and drags him to a different continent against his will. When Jacob is released from the love spell he calls her crazy and Queenie runs away right into the hands of Grindelwald. By the end of the movie, Queenie decides to officially join Grindelwald. Queenie is convinced Grindelwald will allow her to marry a muggle because of his speech at the end of the movie. In the speech, Grindelwald claims he does not hate the non-wizards; he only thinks that magical people are more special and more equal than muggles. In short, Grindelwald believes in Animal Farm’s rule that while all animals are equal, some animals are more equal. There are many parallels in Queenie and Jacob’s romance to the interracial marriage bans and bans against Jews and non-Jews getting married pre-WWII in Germany. Rowling confirmed that there are parallels between Hitler and Grindelwald. Grindelwald’s plan to eliminate muggles in order for wizards to rule is a metaphor for the Nazi ideology of the master race.
Eddie Redmayne talks about the need for sensitivity in parallels between the rise of Grindelwald and the rise of Hitler in an interview stating, “what happened in history was real and this story is fiction. This has to be a serious sensitivity on how that is handled.” Therefore Rowling’s decision to have a character of Jewish background team up with the wizarding world’s version of Hitler is insensitive to the real world plights of Jewish people during the 1930s and 1940s. And that’s even mentioning that Rowling’s portrayal of the goblins in the original Harry Potter series is interpreted to be anti-Semitic.
Tina, on the other hand, is problematic because she has no story of her own and at the end of the day is a static character. Tina’s storyline centers around her romance with Newt and other male characters. The film starts with Tina in Paris trying to find Credence. She hasn’t seen Newt since the last movie because she thinks Newt Scamander (instead of his brother Theseus Scamander) is engaged to Leta Lestrange. For the rest of the film, Newt and Tina play cat and mouse throughout Paris trying to find each other. When they do, Tina is cast aside for other storylines to play out and twists to come into play. Ultimately, the problem with Tina as well as the other three main characters is that they are couples first and characters second. Wikipedia describes Tina as “grounded and down to earth witch.” I would also say that Tina has a strong sense of right and wrong and is kind. Those four character traits are still better than no description at all. However, when one compares Tina’s description of how someone might describe Hermione Granger one can tell that Tina is still not as a flushed out character as Hermione. Hermione is wise, resourceful, an overachiever, but ultimately brave and will stick up for her friends and fight for what is right. Yet at the same time, Hermione struggles with her physical appearance and her overwhelming desire to be the best of the best. The difference between the descriptions of Hermione and Tina is that Hermione has a personality. We know about her goals, points of view and insecurities. Tina is an auror for the Magical Congress of the United States of America. That much alone could make for an excellent storyline of her own.
It is important to point out that many male fantasy writers such as George R.R. Martin, J.R.R. Tolkien, and George Lucas have had their own share of controversy surrounding the treatment of their female characters. Those three male authors, it seems, have not had the same amount of continued criticism that J.K. Rowling faces each time she messes up. However, J.K. Rowling is in a unique position to fix her mistakes and not become Martin, Tolkien, or Lucas. This is because the Fantastic Beasts series plotline is still being set up. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is getting a critical beating and opened with the lowest domestic box office of any of the Harry Potter movies so far. Much of the criticism Crimes of Grindelwald faces is because the film has very little plot and one big twist that doesn’t make much sense. The backlash towards Crimes of Grindelwald is very similar to The Last Jedi but in the opposite way. Most of the backlash towards The Last Jedi was from a small percentage of hardcore Star Wars fans where the general public thought it was a okay movie. On the other hand, most of backlash towards Crimes of Grindelwald was from general audiences who critiqued the lack of plot and twists that do not make sense. Most hardcore Harry Potter fans however thought it was an okay movie because Fantastic Beasts franchise is made for hardcore Harry Potter fans. Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald is two movies into a spin-off series based on a fictional author of a fictional book inside of a fictional universe. Therefore the creators of the film assume if you are watching Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald you are already deep into the Harry Potter lore and will stick with the franchise no matter what. This allows for the creators to string you along knowing they have three more movies to explain the twists and supposed plot holes.
Defenders of the film claim that everything that happened in this film will make sense in retrospect after all five films have been released. Therefore from purely a movie standpoint and not a sequel in a franchise film standpoint, Crimes of Grindelwald does not stand on its own. It doesn’t work without the adjoining pieces from the original film and the next three. While I certainly agree that everything should make sense at the end of the franchise, this does not excuse lazy writing. Just because Warner Brothers Studio has three more movies ordered does not mean Crimes of Grindelwald can be filled with plot holes and twists that don’t make sense with the information available when it was originally released. Crimes of Grindelwald should function like a Marvel movie. In other words, the film should be an enjoyable film on its own. While we all know that Spider-Man and the other consequences that happened in Avengers: Infinity War will certainly be undone, Avengers: Infinity War is and will still be a fun film to watch even after Avengers 4 comes out. This is because Marvel movies, unlike Fantastic Beasts movies, have an end game while still having a self-contained storyline. With three movies left, we have to wonder if someone is going to help Rowling out of this hole she’s dug herself into. There need to be checks and balances even for the people who create our favorite media. No one is perfect and not every idea is a good one. On the bright side, the Fantastic Beasts series still has three movie films left and therefore could fix the mistakes. If Rowling continues to make mistakes when writing female characters and characters of color, though, fans may have to look for fantastic women elsewhere.