Warner Bros. Pictures has released more footage for the upcoming Fantastic Beasts film, including some interviews with the cast, comparing the team-up of Newt, Lally, Bunty, Kama, Theseus and Jacob to that of Dumbledore’s Army in Harry Potter series. The film will be released on April 15, 2022 in the United States and promises to be an interesting new addition to the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, especially with the recasting of Gellert Grindelwald and the mysteriously reduced role of Tina Goldstein.
In these interviews, David Yates, the director of “The Secrets of Dumbledore” and also the last four films in the Harry Potter franchise, claims that the film is about the banding together of a group of outsiders who don’t belong, but belong in their group. He likens their roles to those of Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Dean in Dumbledore’s Army, which brings yet another question: why was Dean mentioned when the even more important Ginny and Luna were not?
The trailer included footage from the Battle at the Ministry of Magic, where Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna teamed up to fight the Death Eaters. So, why in the world were two of the most important female characters brushed aside in favour of Dean Thomas? The same question can be applied regarding Tina Goldstein, who once again is mysteriously absent, to the point that fans have made jokes about her wearing an Invisibility Cloak for the duration of the film, Polyjuice Potion being at play and/or her being an Animagus and having a phoenix form.
While there is new footage shown in the video, there is also a lot of footage from previous films, including direct references from the VFX coordinator, who stated that they were attempting to have superior VFX to the battle between Dumbledore and Voldemort in “The Order of the Phoenix.” Footage is shown primarily from “The Order of the Phoenix,” with music from the original Harry Potter films playing in the background at the end of the video.
It appears that the producers are capitalizing on the success on the Harry Potter films, especially seeing as the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise is not doing as well as the Harry Potter franchise, something that cannot have been helped with the recasting of Gellert Grindelwald, the disappearance of Tina Goldstein and the shift of focus from Newt Scamander to Dumbledore and Grindelwald.
While fans are disappointed by the changes in this latest installment in the “Fantastic Beasts” franchise, it goes without saying that this film is to be the tipping point for future films. The “Fantastic Beasts” franchise was originally planned with five movies in mind, but it has been declared that this third film should be written as a possible conclusion to the franchise should the Powers That Be decide not to have the fourth and fifth films made.
After such massive changes to this film, it goes without saying that the success of the new actors, the writing of the script, the exclusion of one of the franchise’s main stars and other factors are instrumental towards deciding if there will be more films on the horizon.
“Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore” premieres in theaters in the United States on April 15, 2022. That day will determine the fate of the franchise; whether it will continue on its path or whether long-awaiting fans will be disappointed by the latest attempt of continuing the story of the Wizarding World.