They’re still making Harry Potter movies—who knew? On Monday, a new trailer dropped for Warner Bros.’ Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, the third installment in the Fantastic Beasts spinoff series and the 11th overall film in the Harry Potter Wizarding World franchise.
The upcoming fantasy film will focus on Albus Dumbledore’s (Jude Law) untold backstory as he inches closer to a confrontation with his former best friend, the powerful Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald (Mads Mikkelsen). Due to a magical blood pact the two men formed when they were younger, Dumbledore is prevented from fighting Grindelwald, so he enlists the help of Magizoologist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and his ragtag team of friends, including Muggle Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), to thwart Grindelwald’s attempts to take over the wizarding world. In spite of the pact, the trailer hints that fans may finally get the long-awaited showdown between Dumbledore and Grindelwald after all.
The Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore trailer is something of a nostalgia trip for Potterheads, bringing us back to familiar Harry Potter locales like Hogsmeade and the Great Hall of Hogwarts. It even opens with a clip of the beloved, bearded, and bespectacled Michael Gambon iteration of Dumbledore leaning over the Pensieve in his headmaster’s office. “Memory is everything,” he narrates. “Without it, we are blind.”
David Yates will be returning to the director’s chair after helming the previous two Fantastic Beasts films, as well as the final four Harry Potter chapters. J.K. Rowling and Steve Kloves wrote the script based on a screenplay by Rowling. The supporting cast is rounded out by Ezra Miller, Alison Sudol, Katherine Waterson, Jessica Williams, and Callum Turner.
The road to Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore’s release has been long and marred with controversy. As with many recent films, the project was supposed to begin production in 2020, but was delayed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The recasting of Grindelwald also caused a speed bump. Johnny Depp played the villainous role in the first two movies, despite the backlash against him spurred by Amber Heard’s accusations that Depp physically and verbally abused her throughout their marriage. At the time of his initial casting in 2017, Rowling–a demonstrated fan of writing unapologetic open letters defending her abhorrent views–defended the casting on her website. She was supported by Yates and Warner Bros., but when the allegations against Depp once again made headlines because of the actor’s failed libel case against News Group Newspapers in 2020, Warner Bros. asked him to step down. Mikkelsen was cast as his replacement.
Then, of course, there’s the J.K. Rowling of it all. The author has been continually in the news for several years now for vocally doubling down on her transphobic views, leading several Harry Potter stars to wisely distance themselves from the franchise creator.
The bottom line? Rowling is not really a victim of cancel culture, no matter how many times she tries to claim otherwise, and this 11th Harry Potter film is all the proof you need.
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore hits theaters on April 15.
