*Please note this article does contain spoilers for the film*
Like the rest of the Potterverse, I’ve spent the entire weekend reeling from the final scenes of the newest instalment of J.K. Rowling’s universe. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released on Friday and it was as delightful, dark and shocking as I expected it to be. As a die-hard Harry Potter fan, the release of new material is always exciting – especially when we finally get a peek at a young, dare I say, attractive Dumbledore.
The second film in the Fantastic Beasts series follows the events of New York and splits its time between returning characters and new faces. With Johnny Depp’s Grindelwald finally revealed, the threat he poses to the wizarding world looms over our favourite Hufflepuff as he sets out to help Dumbledore move against the dark wizard. Still trying to work out all the details of the movie, these are the burning questions I had after walking out of the theatre.
How is Leta Lestrange related to Bellatrix?
In the movie, Leta (played by Zoe Kravitz and Thea Lamb as the young Leta) is said to be the last living Lestrange after it’s revealed that her baby brother is, in fact, dead. If so, her heroic demise would be the end of the Lestrange bloodline, yet we know all too (painfully) well that Bellatrix and her husband Rodolfo Lestrange are very much alive in the Harry Potter series. Are there other members of the Lestrange family to carry on the lineage? Or is it possible that Leta survives?
Why is the wizarding world so strict on wizard-muggle relationships?
Queenie and Jacob’s entire plot revolves around their forbidden love in the eyes of the magical ministries, but why do they have such a problem with no-mags and wizards being together happily? Apparently, it’s meant to reflect the times, as 40-some-odd years later in the Harry Potter era, muggle-wizard relationships are much more widely accepted, though still uncommon (most notably, Seamus Finnigan is a result of a wizard-muggle relationship!).
What happened between Leta, Theseus and Newt?
Theseus was one of the most entertainment surprises in this movie. With so much promo suggesting a conflict and love triangle between the Newt, Leta and Theseus, it would have been so easy to make him a stereotypical jerk of an older brother who steals the girl – but that’s not what we got. Instead, there’s a tension between the three of them, like none of them are happy with what happened. But what did happen? Did Leta and Theseus become friends after Newt was expelled? Did Leta leave Newt for Theseus?
How do you even break a blood bond?
It was revealed in the seventh Harry Potter book that Dumbledore and Grindelwald knew each other when they met at Godric’s Hollow and we knew that Dumbledore was hesitant to stand against Grindelwald. We now know that it’s not just their history that keeps him on the sidelines, but a blood bond – a pact that they will never harm each other. Thanks to Pickett (Newt’s adorable Bowtruckle) who swiped it from Grindelwald, Dumbledore now has the blood bond and may be able to break it. But how? As we’ve seen throughout the Potterverse, bonds and unbreakable vows are usually quite difficult to break. If anyone can figure it out though, it is the great Albus Dumbledore.
Who is Aurelius Dumbledore?
J.K. Rowling is once again the primary screenwriter for Crimes of Grindelwald, giving her the unique opportunity to expand on the secondary and peripheral characters from the original series – yet no one has ever heard of Aurelius Dumbledore. Revealed to be Credence Barebone’s real name by Grindelwald in the final breaths of the film, it sent the theatre into a shocked hush. However, earlier in the film, Grindelwald does admit that his interest in the obscurial is his ability to destroy Dumbledore, so that might suggest that Grindelwald is only giving him the name to point his rage towards Dumbledore. Others have argued that he could actually be related to Dumbledore, as Dumbledore has gone to great lengths (in sending Newt to New York and to Paris) to protect the vulnerable wizard.
Bonus: Were Leta and her family on the Titanic when it sank?
The single shot of the shipwreck looked suspiciously like the Titanic and the timeline would work, at the movie is set in 1927 with Newt and Leta being 29 and the Titanic sank in April of 1912.
I guess we’ll just have to wait until the third movie in 2020 (ugh, so long!) for the answers!