Today marks the beginning of production on J.K. Rowling’s as-yet-untitled sequel to Fantastic Beasts at the Warner Bros. Studio’s in Leavesden and to celebrate Warner Bros. have released the plot line and additional new cast members.
Moving the location in the second outing from New York to London and Paris, the sequel will see a return for Eddie Redmayne as wizarding world magizoologist Newt Scamander; alongside Katherine Waterston as Auror Tina Goldstein; Alison Sudol as her sister, Queenie Goldstein; and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski, the only No-Maj in the foursome.
Previously announced to join the cast of Rowling’s magical adventure is Johnny Depp as Gellert Grindelwald, stars as the powerful Dark wizard in the film. Oscar nominee Jude Law takes on the role of Albus Dumbledore—one of J.K. Rowling’s most beloved characters—decades before he becomes Headmaster at Hogwarts.
Credence, whose fate was unknown at the end of the first film, makes a mysterious return, played again by Ezra Miller. Zoë Kravitz plays Leta Lestrange, who was glimpsed in a photo as a woman from Newt’s past; Callum Turner is the famed Theseus Scamander, a war hero and Auror, who also happens to be Newt’s older brother; and Claudia Kim plays a young woman we first meet as a featured attraction at a wizarding circus.
Other new faces will include William Nadylam as a wizard named Yusuf Kama; Ingvar Sigurdsson as a bounty hunter named Grimmson; Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Skender, who runs the wizarding circus; and Kevin Guthrie as Abernathy, whom we met as Tina and Queenie’s boss at MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA).
The official word on the synopsis sees the sequel opening in 1927, a few months after Newt helped to unveil and capture the infamous Dark Wizard Gellert Grindelwald. However, as he promised he would, Grindelwald has made a dramatic escape and has been gathering more followers to his cause—elevating wizards above all non-magical beings. The only one who might be able to stop him is the wizard he once called his dearest friend, Albus Dumbledore. But Dumbledore will need help from the wizard who had thwarted Grindelwald once before, his former student Newt Scamander. The adventure reunites Newt with Tina, Queenie and Jacob, but his mission will also test their loyalties as they face new perils in an increasingly dangerous and divided wizarding world.
It’s also been teased that Harry Potter fans will be delighted at certain nods and references to the books and films of the most famous young wizard.
Fantastic Beasts – The Sequel is currently slated for a November 16, 2018, release.
