Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald has come and gone and it only makes us more curious about the world of Fantastic Beasts, before the world of Harry Potter came along. With Crimes of Grindelwald, we have not even covered half of the Harry Potter 5-part prequel yet. Here’s what we know so far on the third movie.
Who’s back for part 3?
The second movie only opens up more crimes of Grindelwald. As we know, Leta Lestrange sacrificed herself while helping Newt and company escape. This means Zoe Kravitz won’t be making a return in the third movie. Everyone else survived. So we can expect to see Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander), Katherine Waterston (Tina Goldstein), Dan Fogler (Jacob Kowalski), Alison Sudol (Queenie Goldstein), Ezra Miller (Credence Barebone), Callum Turner (Theseus Scamander), Jude Law (the young Albus Dumbledore) and of course, Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald.
Who’s at the directing helm?
He’s not new to the Harry Potter world. David Yates has announced his return to direct the third Fantastic Beasts movie, as well as the next two. This third movie will be his 7th directing effort for the Harry Potter franchise.
Where in the world?
All five Fantastic Beasts movie are set in different cities. So far, we have been to New York and Paris, and the third film, according to Fogler, will be in Brazil. This was confirmed by a cryptic tweet by JK Rowling herself end of last year, when she was furiously churning out the script:
She further revealed that she has been typing a Brazilian city name for many times during the period which she was working on the script.
Where could the story go?
Rowling has previously disclosed that the five Fantastic Beasts movies are based in the period between 1926 and 1945. The end date doesn’t just mark the end of WWII, but also the defeat suffered by Grindelwald at the hands of Dumbledore at his fortress in Numengard, Austria. The Crimes of Grindelwald is set in 1927, which means that the remaining three films still have a long way to go before Grindelwald’s fall.
The end of The Crimes of Grindelwald may give a clue on the focus of the next film. There is a pendant containing Grindelwald and Dumbledore’s blood that’s stolen by one of Newt Scamander’s Nifflers. The blood contains a formidable combination of two powerful wizard’s blood that prevents either wizard from causing harm to each other. The third movie may focus on the destruction of this pendant and hence, its blood pact, so that Dumbledore can once again, face Grindelwald and destroy him (which we know he eventually does). But then again, this is just a theory. If true, we might see Dumbledore finally confront Grindelwald, which would make an exciting premise.
When can we see it?
If everything goes well, we might be able to catch the movie in 2020. However, word is that production has been pushed back from July 2019 to late autumn, so there might be a slight chance that the movie may be released later. The delay in filming is due to its magnitude. Again, Folger revealed in an interview that the third movie “is bigger than the first two combined. They needed more time to prep and they didn’t want to rush anything so they pushed it back.”
