The second film in the FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM franchise will hit theaters next month and it will be diving deeper into the legacy of Gellert Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), the dark wizard who was revealed at the close of the first film. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, who also wrote the screenplays for the two FANTASTIC BEASTS movies, explained what we need to know about Grindelwald before we walk into the sequel.
The first mention of Grindelwald is in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, so he has been part of the canon from the beginning. He was a very famous dark wizard whom Dumbledore defeated in 1945, a wizard who once owned the Elder Wand (as Voldemort did later). Although he remained rather mysterious in the Potter books, I had a very clear understanding of who Grindelwald was and what his story had been. Grindelwald is essential to an understanding of how Dumbledore became Dumbledore.
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD will be the second installment of what is expected to be a five-film series, and much liike the Harry Potter novels, J.K. Rowling already has everything mapped out. "It’s always possible that some details will change along the way, but the arc of the story is there," Rowling said. "It’s been an amazing opportunity to tell parts of the backstory that never made it into the original books. I’m thinking particularly of one character that I think fans will be surprised to meet in this movie." It's previously been said that each FANTASTIC BEASTS sequel will be set in a different city, and while Rowling isn't about to reveal anything, she did tease that we'll go to at least one, possibly two, new cities in the next film. Rowling also said that she's "keen to move outside Europe and North America" as well.
A short new featurette for the upcoming sequel has also been released, which paints Credence Barebone (Ezra Miller) as a much more pivotal piece of the puzzle than we'd assumed. You can watch that below.
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD will hit theaters on November 16, 2018.