K.T Simpson
The yet-untitled sequel to 2016’s “Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them” has begun production, with new cast and plot details revealed. Directed once again by David Yates, the JK Rowling book adaptation is due for a late 2018 release, and while details have so far been scarce, we now have some new information.
Warner Bros. has described the plot as: “Grindelwald has made a dramatic escape and has been gathering more followers to his cause – elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore. But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander.”
We previously reported that Jude Law was aboard the second film to play a young Albus Dumbledore, alongside Johnny Depp reprising his role as Gellert Grindelward, who was a childhood friend of Dumbledore’s. As well as Depp, original cast members Eddie Redmayne (Newt Scamander), Katherine Waterston (Tina), Alison Sudol (Queenie) and Dan Fogler (Jacob) will also return. We also get to see Newt’s brother Theseus (Callum Turner), and Ezra Miller’s Credence. You know, the guy with the bowl cut.
While we saw Zoe Kravitz’s character Leta Lestrage for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the first film, she will be back in “Beasts 2” in a larger capacity. Claudia Kim is also on board to star as a young woman as an attraction at a wizarding circus (I’m totally crossing my fingers for some kind of elephant man).
Rowling must surely be the richest woman in the world by now, yes? The “Harry Potter” phenomenon went bat-shit crazy way back in 1997 with the release of the first book, “The Philosophers’ Stone”, and not satisfied with 7 in the series, Rowling wrote “Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them” in 2001 as a spinoff of sorts, based on the magical creatures from Potter’s universe. “Fantastic Beasts 2” forms the second film out of a five-picture series. There’s a whole lot of mythological beasts in Rowling’s novel, so we may get to see such creatures as “Fwooper”, “Glumbumble” or “Fire Crab”. Fairly sure at least one of these words can be heard from every 6 month old child, but in the Potter world they’re something way more fascinating.
The set date of the film sits at November 16, 2018.
