Fantastic Beasts may feature appearances from familiar Potter characters

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

One of the tricky balances a movie like FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM must strike is between being its own thing while also tying back into the original world that made such a film possible to begin with. And, in FANTASTIC BEASTS' case, that obviously means the Wizarding World inhabited by Harry Potter, his fellow Hogwarts alumni and many others. Fans of J.K. Rowling's creations will obviously be able to connect the dots, but will mainstream and/or casual audiences? Or may they need something a bit more overt to understand that this is all a part of the same shared universe, meaning name-dropping and possible cameo appearances?

Warner Bros. has done a solid job thus far of keeping any secrets of that sort to themselves thus far, but it is possible that we may be seeing or hearing about some familiar Harry Potter characters as we expand into the corner of the Wizarding World where FANTASTIC BEASTS takes place. A couple of cast members from the film said as much when talking to MTV at CinemaCon. 

When Alison Sudol was asked abou direct connections to the already-existing Potter-verse, her response:

I wouldn’t say there are a lot, but because it is its own world and it’s also so much earlier, there are people who are alive.

Nice dodge. But Dan Fogler wasn't as evasive with his answer to a similar question…

You do meet…as the stories go along…you…you…I can’t give it away! You will see, you will hear mention of your favorite characters and you may even meet their younger counterparts along the way.

Hearing mentions of characters seemed perfectly reasonable considering we already heard Albus Dumbledore's name come up in the latest trailer for the film, but meeting younger counterparts? Hmmm… Who might cross timelines and put in some FANTASTIC BEASTS facetime? Let the guesses begin.

FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM opens in theaters on November 18.