Confirmed today is the news that two-time Oscar nominee and Brit Jude Law is to step into the shoes of one of the most iconic and legendary wizards of modern times, Harry Potter’s old Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore in the sequel to Fantastic Beasts.
Related: Fantastic Beasts News and Interviews
Make-up artists on the production of the sequel to last year’s film, which earned more than $813 million at the box office, will be pleased to know that heavy ageing makeup won’t be needed as Law joins as a young Dumbledore, decades before he took the helm at Hogwarts. Dumbledore was a glancing presence in Fantastic Beasts and now we will get to see him as just a Transfiguration professor and a contemporary of Gellert Grindelwald, the dark wizard who believes wizards have a superior place above Muggles or as known in America, No-Majs.
Director David Yates put out this statement:”Jude Law is a phenomenally talented actor whose work I have long admired, and I’m looking forward to finally having the opportunity to work with him. I know he will brilliantly capture all the unexpected facets of Albus Dumbledore as J.K. Rowling reveals this very different time in his life.”
Yates had already stated last year that “The younger Dumbledore is delightful. He’s very mischievous and enormous fun and a bit of a political animal.”
J.K. Rowling’s script for the sequel is said to “move deeper into an increasingly dark time for the wizarding world, where Newt Scamander (who is played by Eddie Redmayne) and our other heroes have to decide on their allegiances.”
Law has some pretty big footsteps to follow, the beloved Dumbledore was originally played by Richard Harris in the first two films of the Harry Potter saga and was then replaced with Michael Gambon from the Prisoner of Azkban – So he’s under no pressure at all to get this one right.
Filming for the next instalment of the Harry Potter prequels, sequel is believed to start in the summer of this year.
