Warner Bros. has revealed that Johnny Depp has signed up to appear in the Fantastic Beasts franchise. It appears they were hoping to keep the news a secret, but following the first press screenings of Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them, word slipped out that Depp has a small cameo. That caused Warner to confirm the news and let the world know he’d be getting a much largee role in the sequel.
Although there’s been no confirmation of what role Depp will be playing, hints and rumours suggest it’s Gellert Grindelwald, who Albus Dumbledore developed a close attachment to as a teen – with the future Hogwarts headmaster having a perhaps reciprocated crush on his friend – but then the latter went off and became an incredibly powerful dark wizard. It’s believed Grindelwald’s rise and eventual fall will be intrinsic to the currently planned five Fantastic Beasts movies.
Whether any sort of romantic attachment between Dumbledore and Grindelwald will be shown isn’t known, as in the Harry Potter books Albus doesn’t confirm they were anything more than friends, and says that as an adult he avoided Gellert until their final confrontation. However, we may discover there’s more to it than that.
The first Fantastic Beasts film is set in New York in 1926, which is around the time we know Grindelwald was starting his secretive rise to power in Europe. Director David Yates has confirmed the second movie will transfer the main action to Paris in the 1930s, which suggests it will be increasingly Grindelwald focused. We also know a young Dumbledore himself will show up in the sequels.
The first film in the franchise hits cinemas in mid-November.
At one point, Deathly Hallows was the end. Now we’ve got a new Harry Potter play – Cursed Child – playing in London, and the imminent film spin-off, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, is on its way. The latter has now released its final trailer, which looks great – familiar enough to those who love everything Potter, while also promising something new.
Synopsis: ‘Set in the wizarding world created by J.K. Rowling and directed by David Yates. The film stars Academy Award winner Eddie Redmayne, Colin Farrell, Ron Perlman, Dan Fogler, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Samantha Morton, Gemma Chan, and Jon Voight.
With Comic-Con kicking off in Sand Diego, movie studios have been lining up to release new posters for their upcoming movies. That includes Wonder Woman, Kong: Skull Island, The LEGO Batman Movie, Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them, War Dogs and King Arthur.
For those who’ve been suffering major withdrawal symptoms since the last Harry Potter movie hit cinemas, hope is coming in the form of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a spin-off set in the same magical world, but several decades before Harry went to Hogwarts. David Yates is once more directing, and to show us that things are indeed the same but different, the first trailer and official poster have arrived.