Final ‘Fantastic Beasts 2’ Trailer Has a Young(er) Dumbledore and Huge Voldemort Connection
The next Fantastic Beasts sequel isn’t just giving us a young Dumbledore with Jude Law; we’re getting a sneak peek at an every younger version of the beloved eventual Hogwarts headmaster. Does this mean J.K. Rowling is finally showing us gay Dumbledore falling for Grindelwald?
The final trailer for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald doesn’t reveal too much more as far as the sequel’s plot, but there are a trio of exciting character reveals. In the second movie, Eddie Redmayne’s Newt Scamander is asked to hunt down Grindelwald (Johnny Depp, sadly) after his escape at the end of the the first Harry Potter spinoff. Law’s Dumbledore tells Newt he can’t “move against Grindelwald.” Why? Well, we don’t exactly know the details yet, but the trailer finally acknowledges Albus’ tortured history with the evil wizard in a bit of a flashback.
As Dumbledore looks into the Mirror of the Erised, he sees an even younger version of himself affectionately touching hands with Jamie Campbell Bower’s Gellert Grindelwald, whom we first met in The Deathly Hallows Pt. 1. Director David Yates has said Dumbledore won’t be “explicitly gay“ in the new movie, but the optimist in me is really hoping Rowling finally explores the two wizard’s romantic history in the third film.
But that’s not the only reveal! Did you spot that woman who transforms into a snake in the trailer? That’s Nagini! Yes, Lord Voldemort’s eventual serpent pal who kills Snape and his Horcrux destroyed by one true hero, Neville Longbottom. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, South Korean actress Claudia Kim reveals she’s playing the Maledictus – a human with a blood curse that turns them into a beast. In the new prequel, set in 1927, Nagini is a member of the traveling Circus Arcanus, which Ezra Miller’s Credence is now a part of. Kim told EW about playing another side of Nagini:
In this, she’s a wonderful and vulnerable woman who wants to live. She wants to stay a human being and I think that’s a wonderful contrast to the character.
But knowing what we know from the Potter books, we won’t see Nagini in human form for long. Kim revealed a little more about her the blood curse and her character’s potential magical abilities:
She is bound to [permanently] transform at some point to a beast so she feels this pressure that the clock is ticking. […] She has powers that are yet to be explored. I can’t confirm she has powers like wizards have.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald hits theaters November 16.
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